You do not need to run away to join the circus
from: thestar.com.my
June 4, 2013
IT IS a circus out there, quite literally, for a growing number of Singaporeans who are turning to trapeze acrobatics, juggling and stiltwalking as a hobby and a way to keep fit.
In the past five years, numbers have grown from less than 40 to more than 300 now, according to practitioners. At Circus Swingapore, a school for the aerial arts, more students are taking classes to shape up, said executive creative director Lim Sing Yuen.
Every week, its classes, now fully booked, are attended by 210 students, from children as young as four to adults, learning acrobatics on a static trapeze, a hoop suspended in mid-air or silk bands draped from a rig.
Said Connie Lee, an insurance broker in her late 30s and an aerial arts student for the past two years: “Not many people know how to do this and it’s really a full-body workout – that’s why I like it.”
Workshops cost around S$200 (RM500) for eight weeks. Bruises come easy when moves go wrong, but Lee keeps coming back.
“It requires courage to get on the trapeze and perserverance to achieve the poses, but once you get it, it’s quite addictive,” she said.
On the ground, poi spinning, which involves a special prop that makes patterns, and contact juggling are growing more popular here. The Bornfire Community Circus hobby group, consisting of jugglers and poi spinners, meets up every week at Kallang Community Club to practise.
It has about 20 regulars, but up to 10 new faces come down every week to try, said fresh graduate Choo Zheng Hao, 24, who has been with the group for more than two years.
Retiree Anthony Lim, 61, attended a juggling workshop after reading about the group online.
“It feels good to achieve something you thought you couldn’t,” said Lim, who hopes to continue to learn juggling at home through lessons on YouTube.
Even the young are getting on board, through lessons in schools and children’s homes.
“Juggling, for example, teaches you perseverance and confidence,” said Jay Che, founder of Circus In Motion, which conducted lessons in poi, stiltwalking and diablo, a form of juggling in which a spool is spun on a string, for around 25 schools and youth organisations last year. — The Straits Times / Asia News Network
from: thestar.com.my
June 4, 2013
IT IS a circus out there, quite literally, for a growing number of Singaporeans who are turning to trapeze acrobatics, juggling and stiltwalking as a hobby and a way to keep fit.
In the past five years, numbers have grown from less than 40 to more than 300 now, according to practitioners. At Circus Swingapore, a school for the aerial arts, more students are taking classes to shape up, said executive creative director Lim Sing Yuen.
Every week, its classes, now fully booked, are attended by 210 students, from children as young as four to adults, learning acrobatics on a static trapeze, a hoop suspended in mid-air or silk bands draped from a rig.
Said Connie Lee, an insurance broker in her late 30s and an aerial arts student for the past two years: “Not many people know how to do this and it’s really a full-body workout – that’s why I like it.”
Workshops cost around S$200 (RM500) for eight weeks. Bruises come easy when moves go wrong, but Lee keeps coming back.
“It requires courage to get on the trapeze and perserverance to achieve the poses, but once you get it, it’s quite addictive,” she said.
On the ground, poi spinning, which involves a special prop that makes patterns, and contact juggling are growing more popular here. The Bornfire Community Circus hobby group, consisting of jugglers and poi spinners, meets up every week at Kallang Community Club to practise.
It has about 20 regulars, but up to 10 new faces come down every week to try, said fresh graduate Choo Zheng Hao, 24, who has been with the group for more than two years.
Retiree Anthony Lim, 61, attended a juggling workshop after reading about the group online.
“It feels good to achieve something you thought you couldn’t,” said Lim, who hopes to continue to learn juggling at home through lessons on YouTube.
Even the young are getting on board, through lessons in schools and children’s homes.
“Juggling, for example, teaches you perseverance and confidence,” said Jay Che, founder of Circus In Motion, which conducted lessons in poi, stiltwalking and diablo, a form of juggling in which a spool is spun on a string, for around 25 schools and youth organisations last year. — The Straits Times / Asia News Network
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