With the end of our first term we had to soft declare our majors and minors and start talking to coaches. I’ve been back and forth on this decision since I was accepted into the program. Trying to figure it out has been a huge stress on me this entire first trimester and even after making the decision it’s still in the front of my mind on if I made the right call.
MINOR:
Choosing my minor was an easier decision than my major. Last I updated you guys I was between juggling and handstands and ultimately I landed on juggling! I’ve loved juggling since I learned how in 2018 and during the lockdowns in 2020 I learned how to juggle clubs. Having a weekly class where a professional juggler gives us step by step instructions has been so fun and has helped so much. A lot of our juggling class so far has been learning about different props but, with juggling as my minor, I’ll get a private lesson every week where I’ll work with my coach specifically on my goals. I don’t have a super clear vision on where I want to go with my juggling but my goals right now are: passing clubs, back crosses , Mills Mess, 4 ball juggling and working on body catches/ throws. I also learned through class that I really like contact juggling, but I don’t know enough about it to have specific goals! I am still doing handstands twice a week, once in a recreational class and once in the pro classes so I will keep progressing! I’m considering handstands a “self minor” in that I’ll keep working on them by either taking a class or using my open training time to practice. Cyr wheel really became a contender for minoring as well, but Aloft isn’t the best place to train it since the mats have to be rolled up and there’s just no space when other people are around. It’s taken me a good amount of willpower not to minor in another aerial discipline, but I feel very strongly that I need to have a ground skill!
MAJOR:
My main focus for most of my aerial life has been lyra. The ceilings in Cincinnati are better suited to lyra in both studios and gig venues and lyra was what I was hired to teach so that became my default for performing, thus it pulled my focus 95% of the time. Silks, however, was my very first love. I spent months struggling just to do basic climbs and inverts before ever trying any other disciplines and when I finally did try lyra it hurt so bad and I thought “why would anyone do this when silks are so much cooler and hurts so much less”! My feelings did eventually shift for lyra and my love of silks dwindled while I focused on hoop, but I have come full circle and decided to major in silks! I do still love lyra and am more confident on hoop than silks but that’s partly why I‘ve decided silks was the move. I have a decent vocabulary on lyra already and I have a much easier time learning new skills on lyra than I do on silks. I find silks much scarier since it’s so easy to get tangled or miss a wrap. My silks education was also much more chaotic than my lyra journey. The studio where I was first learning silks didn’t follow any curriculum so I missed a lot of the basics and was working on things that were far above my skill set as a beginner, which made progressing hard. My lyra journey followed a better progression of beginner->intermediate->advanced and I’d already developed more strength from silks by the time I actually started lyra which allowed me to learn with a lot more ease. So now I’m returning to my first love, silks, with personalized guidance in a space with 30ft+ ceilings where I can gain confidence, grow my silks vocabulary, and find my style. I am still in a lyra class every week and I can train it in my open training if I so choose, so I will be able to maintain my skills if not improve on them. The only sense of remorse I have for this decision is that I am currently better at lyra than silks and if I majored in lyra I know I’d be able to gain some dream skills. I have a fear that I could be a great lyra artist but since I chose to major in something I’m not as good at, that I might just finish this program as a good enough silks artist and a good enough lyra artist. Ultimately I feel that I’ll be gaining another skill set by majoring in silks and I can advance my lyra skills after the program, but I need more hand holding and guidance to progress my silks journey.
Since I listed my goals for juggling I also want to share my objectives for silks: , get over my fear of the high ceilings, learn the theory behind wraps so that I can come up with my own pathways, getting comfortable with drops that land in ankle hangs, spinning skills, hip key roll ups, windmills, swivel S-wrap entry, and iron cross rollups (I know those are a lofty goal, but hey, dream big:))!
Thanks for reading this far<3 Let me know if you’re surprised! My poll on instagram showed most people thought I was majoring lyra! What would you major and minor in if you were going to circus school?
