A few months ago, a friend of mine told me about these Vaudeville classes she was taking at "Circus School" - Centre of Gravity in Toronto. My curiosity was piqued. I've done clown work and stilt walking in the past, and I definitely want the roller skating I do in Roller Derby Saved my Soul to be very circus-like. I checked out the website and found something that was perfect for me: Circus Conditioning and Flexibility Class. Now, to be fair, my brain, the first time, totally read that as "Core" Conditioning and Flexibility Class (in fact, I didn't realize until right now when I looked it up for this blog that it was called something else) and I jumped at the chance to get more ab work since I totally need it to get steadier on skates. The roommate and I signed up. Turns out my roommate is a former gymnast (is there anything she can't do?) and she also wanted to get back into shape.

The class itself is really cool and the instructor is *sigh* very good. We started out with some stretching, then some tumbling (where I swear the Mission Impossible theme was playing in my head the entire time), tried to balance some objects on our chins, got my first introduction to juggling, and then did a circuit that included balancing yourself on top of a ball as well climbing up silks and a low-hanging trapeze.

It was hard and I'm definitely feeling it today, but I'm proud that the roommate and I were able to keep up. Not to mention some activities were a lot easier than I thought they would be like standing up tall on a big round ball.

This one made sense to me. It's all core work and I've got a lot of experience there thanks to yoga and roller skating. No, the one that did surprise me was the fact that I can juggle. How that happened I really don't know, but it felt the exact same way it did the first time I put on roller skates. Not easy, but with definite ease. Next up, juggling on roller skates?

Someday...