Sailor Circus offers flying trapeze classes for beginners

SARASOTA (FOX 13) - The folks from Sailor Circus make flying through the air on a trapeze look easy.

Ever wonder if you could do it?

Now you can give it a try. Sailor Circus in Sarasota is offering trapeze lessons, even for beginners.

Don’t be fooled. FOX 13’s Josh Cascio says being up on that platform is defiantly overwhelming and pretty scary, at first.

He spent the day at Sarasota High School, learning how to fly, flip, and land alongside some kids who have dreams of leaving home to join the circus.

Standing on the platform 20 feet in the air, 8-year-old Alexa Pivovarnik has no fear.

“It’s nice and kind of feels like your flying like a bird,” she said.  “The first one is scary. The second one isn’t scary.”

She swoops swings and summersaults like a natural, even though she's only practiced a few times.

“No, it’s not that tough. All you need to do is hang on and swing your legs,” Alexa said.

Easy for her to say.

“It’s a lot of core, a lot of shoulder, a lot of upper body, but it doesn't require that. For your first lesson we keep it very beginner friendly,” explained Sailor Circus instructor Andres Leon-Miller. “We fly anyone from age 5 to 75.”

Even a 35-year-old wannabe action star, turned news reporter.

“To me, mentally, it’s being present in that second, in that moment, you can't take your mind away from what you’re doing at all,” Leon-Miller said.

It’s definitely a way to overcome any fear of heights.

The Sailor Circus's beginner trapeze class is held four times a week for two hours and it’s open to the public. The fee is $50 per class.  

Because of renovations to the Sailor Circus arena, the classes are being held on the soccer field at Sarasota High school.

For more information on the flying trapeze class schedules, head to the Circus Arts website: https://circusarts.org/classschedules/flyingtrapeze/