Circus & Aaron Burr

Wellington Circus Hub

When I moved to Wellington I saw a flyer for ‘try it all’ circus classes at Wellington Circus Hub. Intrigued, I went along to try it out and had so much fun at doing something so different I carried on. Over the next 10 years I had a go at pretty much every type of class on offer, from aerials silks, static trapeze, aerial hoop, acrobatic partnering, to handstands, tumbling, unicycling and, incredibly, flying trapeze.

I met a bunch of really interesting people across the range of classmates and tutors, and learnt some amazing skills and ways of moving the body that I’d never imagined. It brought an element of magic to life to go into the circus hub on cold, wet winter’s evening after a humdrum day work and step into a colourful, playful and supportive environment where gravity could be defied. I think it's probably a factor in why I’m attracted forms of movement that involve three-dimensions and play.

Below are some photos of aerial silks, static trapeze and acrobatic partnering:

Flying Trapeze

For just a couple of terms the Circus Hub had a flying trapeze rig and I tried it out and loved it. It was an incredible experience in, literally, leaping into the great unknown, embracing uncertainty, focusing on the moment, staying calm and believing in yourself. It was also about trying and trying again until you get the hang of it and not giving up.

A moment that will stay with me forever is the feeling of the first time I flew off one flying trapeze in an upside down position onto another with a ‘catcher’. It was pure exhilaration and a massive rush of adrenalin. I was buzzing for hours afterwards.

A couple of times on holiday, I came across opportunities to fly. In Byron Bay there is a full size rig where you can learn a few moves in an afternoon.

At Pahia there’s also a rig where you can fly without safety ropes and fall into giant inflatables.

In both places there is an instructor calling out what to do, you just have to follow the instructions and trust it will work - easier said than done of course but you just have to focus on the moment and commit. Good lessons for life generally.

A couple of times a year the Circus Hub put on a performance with some kind of theme made up of acts from tutors and class attendees, and it was always fun to go along and see what had been created.

One year I took an aerial dance class and was even part of a group performance on aerial hoops, which was a fabulous experience, in part because friends could come along and watch, and finally understand what the circus hub I’d been talking about for so many years was all about. It was also pretty exciting to watch some mind blowing performances from the wings on the night

Below is a video of a unique flying trapeze performance that took place at the hub. One of the performers was the flying trapeze class tutor, Ben Whitton, who was a great instructor and also went to the same handstand classes as me.

Handstands and Aaron Burr

Aaron Burr is a handstand coach and circus performer specialising in swinging chinese pole. He trained at the Beijing International Arts School and I enjoyed going to several terms of his handstand classes at the Circus Hub.

In my last year or so of living in Wellingon he started a handstands class at a Thrive, a central Wellington pilates studio, and a few of us from the hub trained there with him. The website Stuff wrote an article about the class and it was a great Friday after-work ritual with a lovely small group to wind up the week.

Aaron has a calm, kind and friendly teaching style with meticulous attention to detail in how we are moving and using our bodies, helping us to tune in to what a good position feels like so we can truly understand it. There’s a lot of strength and flexibility required for handstands. It’s also a mental exercise which will have alot of failures along the way. Getting to a good handstand requires a lot of persistence.

Aaron introduced me to the importance of fascia in movement and the work of Thomas Myers of Anatomy Trains. Since that time I’ve been enjoying practicing myofascial pilates at home using a video and felt the benefits in terms of feeling looser and freer. I recently bumped into Aaron in Tauranga, when he was visiting his parents, and on chatting about what we were up to, realised that he has also trained with John Polley on mysofascial movement.

Aaron has inspired me to continue working on bodyweight, acrobatic type movements as a practice in itself and helped teach me skills in tuning in to what’s happening and making micro adjustments towards the right position.

Aaron posts about his movement practices and teaching on his instagram and facebook page, and his website is aaronjohnburr.com