Just like any other bioinformatician, I spend a lot of time every day in front of my computer and I am under no false pretence that my posture is anywhere near ideal. To counteract this, I have taken up the flying trapeze for some exercise and since classes run at ten participants, we decided that some other OPIGlets should try their hands at the circus arts on a fine summer evening!

Differing from static trapeze where one or two performers go from position to position on a non-swinging bar, flying trapeze was invented in 1859 by Jules Léotard (Guess what garment he also invented!). A trick in the art involves two performers. A flier jumps off a platform while holding a trapeze and performs a trick during their swing before jumping off the trapeze at the other end. The catcher swings from another trapeze by their legs and (hopefully) catches the flier out of the air at the end of the trick.

On the day, the weather looked like it was not going to play along, but when the time to fly came around the rain decided to give us a break, so we all met up at Florence Park. After some affirmation from our instructors about safety, a warmup, and a demonstration of the trick that we were being taught, it was time to climb up the eight-meter-long ladder to the platform. We all had a few practice rounds without a catcher, and then came the real deal. One of our instructors got onto the catcher’s trapeze, and we all performed our tricks in order. Everyone made their catches in the end, and here is a video of Marc performing the so-called knee hang trick.

After the stressful catch round we had a more light-hearted somersault competition. While everyone did beautifully here, I decided to ignore (read: panic and forget) everything I was told and instead firmly planted my nose into the safety net which, of course, was caught on camera: