The Wake

Illustration by Lucy Michell

Most college students have difficulty trying to balance their checkbooks. The students in Professors Sean and Meg Emery’s class do a bit more than that. They balance themselves on chairs, ropes, and even a trapeze. One student juggles while a partner sits on his shoulders. Another practices forward rolls and leaps on a mat. Yet another student opens a fan fast as lightning with a flick of his wrist. One student dangles her body on the trapeze. This is Circus Performance class.

“Once people realize that they can learn this, they really have fun with it,” Professor Meg Emery says. Emery says the idea for another circus class at the University of Minnesota came up at a party, while her husband, Sean, was performing clown tricks. Meg Emery, a trapeze artist herself, has taught aerial arts performance for about 30 years. She met Sean Emery, a veteran clown performer, in 1980 while the two were in Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey circus. They created Xelias Aerial Arts School in 2001, and offer aerial arts classes at their studio in Northeast Minneapolis.

This class is offered by the theater department and meets this spring every Tuesday from 11:15 to 1:10. the class takes place inside a fairly large studio on the fifth floor of the Rarig center. The room itself looks quite bare, save for a blue curtain on the west-facing wall, a trapeze hung about ten feet off the ground, and a large rope hung from the ceiling, about 20 to 25 feet in the air. The rope has a little loop in it, about 15 feet from the ground. This is the Spanish Web, Meg Emery’s favorite aerial arts style. Mats lie in various places around the studio space, and wherever one steps there’s bound to be a juggling ball or two rolling past. Students are performing amazing physical feats all around the classroom.

“I was surprised at what my body and what other peoples’ bodies are capable of doing,” says Molly Duvorsky, a junior theatre major. Duvorsky is currently working with three other students on their final project, a performance piece which demonstrates at least three techniques they’ve learned while training under the Emerys. However, not only theater students can sign up. The list of majors in the course this spring includes mathematics, journalism, individual studies, youth studies, and others. Oddly enough, Sean Emery says some of the best performers he’s taught in this course have been history majors.

The origin of circus performance comes from the Roman Empire. People were elected to the position of Aediles, who then organized mass extravaganzas for the Roman people, including gladiatorial combat, chariot racing, and large animal shows. These circuses were held until the fall of the Roman Empire, plunging Europe and circus performances with it into the Dark Ages. Until the 16th century, small troupes of performers would tour the countryside, playing and entertaining at village fairs. After legislation was passed banning touring groups from performing, entertainers banded together in more permanent locations, usually at county fairs.

The beginnings of modern-day circus performance started with Philip Astley, a former sergeant-major of the English Army and a skilled horse trainer. Astley created the famous Amphitheater Riding House in 1768, teaching daring feats of horseback riding and eventually performing for the audience inside what is now known as the circus ring, which he put in the arena to help him stand on the backs of cantering horses. By 1770 he hired acrobats, tightrope walkers and jugglers to help pass the time between equestrian displays. These circus shows made their way to the American Colonies through performer John Bill Ricketts, who toured from Philadelphia to New York. Since then, circus has evolved in its complexity, as Cirque du Soleil’s acrobatic performances demonstrate.

The class begins with an intense warm-up. Everyone stands in a circle in the middle of the studio, stretching their arms and legs in various positions. They move on to curling themselves into a ball, rolling back and forth, finally springing up from the ground in a fluid motion. The intensive stretching follows, leaving every muscle aching before the actual lessons begin. At one point, the students are asked to lie flat on their backs and then place their hands on their ankles. After pushing up their lower bodies, everyone places their hands behind their shoulders and pushes up, forming a bridge with their bodies. Of course, this appears much easier on paper than it is in reality.

Once warm-ups have ended, each student drifts off to work on their final projects. With four classes left before they perform for one another, everyone is busy fleshing out what their routines will become. Some are working together in small groups, while others are working alone. Allison Witham, a theater and English major sophomore, will perform a piece with her partner centered on their hats.

“We kind of have a skeleton of our piece right now,” Witham says. “We’re going to do hat tricks, cane tricks, juggling, tumbling, clown tricks, chair falls and rolls.” She and her partner also want to incorporate “rolling into [their] clothes and hats” into their piece. Witham was in the juggling club at her high school, but hasn’t found the time to participate in the U of M’s juggling club. She decided to try this class instead. It has certainly paid off for her. At one point, she balanced a hat on a cane before balancing the cane on her chin. Suddenly, she deftly removed the cane with one hand, popping the hat into the air before landing it perfectly on top of her head.

Both professors move about the class, giving instructions to students as they work. At one point, Sean Emery gave instructions to two performers attempting a two-person forward roll. While one person attempts to roll over the other, Professor Emery makes sure they “stay tight,” to each other, in order to minimize the risk of injuring one another. He stopped them, explaining how the standing performer should aim as close as they can to the performer on the ground. By aiming for the other person’s butt, the rolling performer will rotate their head just enough to land on their shoulders instead of their head.

Meg Emery is busy working with another student who has scaled the Spanish Web. The student places her wrist inside the loop high on the rope, grabbing another section of the rope to her side. As Professor Emery slowly starts to spin the rope, the student begins to drift gracefully in a circle, moved by centrifugal force. The student executes various positions as Emery calmly gives her instructions, moving the rope, and consequently the student, faster and faster. After coming to a stop, the student climbs down from the rope.

“It challenges you,” Tammy Thorson says. Thorson is an individual studies major who specializes in exotic animal training care and performance with an emphasis on marine mammals. Because of her unique major, an advisor suggested she take the class. Thorson is taking circus performance for the second time, despite her initial fear during her first time taking the course. When she walked into class the first day, she felt scared of the aerial tricks. Now, Thorson says she loves doing acrobatics on the trapeze and on the Spanish Web.

Nearly every student in the class says they were terrified at first, but now love practicing and training for their final performance. Each student has taken away something from the class, whether it’s confidence, a higher physical fitness, or respect for circus performers. That’s the goal of the class, according to Sean Emery. Emery says although the course revolves around intensely physical risk-taking maneuvers, it soon becomes more than that. It challenges the students to show a willingness to try things they never imagined they could do, while teaching students acrobatics that a normal high school physical education program wouldn’t offer. Ultimately, students walk away with something better than circus skills.

“It’s about learning something about yourself,” Sean Emery says.

The class ends with conditioning exercises. Although the exercises vary from class to class, the students use a variety of exercises meant to strengthen core and arm muscles, according to sophomore theatre arts major Cameron Nelson. Each student will perform maneuvers like tuck ups, side tuck ups, cat’s stretches, push ups, and abdominal lifts off of the ground before parting ways to get to their next class.

“It’s worth the blood, sweat, and tears, which you get all of,” Tammy Thorson says.

For more information on Xelias Aerial Arts School, go to www.watchhumansfly.com