Youth Course - Tight-wire
All Levels (for 7 - 17 years)
Category: Equilbristics / Tight-wireWhen:
THURSDAYS (Term-time) 5.30am - 7.00pm
For a bit of fun as an introduction to wire-walking:
Click on "Try Tight-wire" below to see a little animation made by Sam Welbourne of Palava Arts
Skills Taught:
Category: Equilibristics > Tight-wire
Learn the art of Tight-rope / Tight-wire / High Wire Walking with Circus Maniacs.
Level:
This weekly class for keen young potential Wire-walkers / Dancers. Absolute Beginners, are welcome.
Recommend also as an additional mid-week session for those attending the Saturday Sessions who are particularly keen on progressing faster.
Beginners learn the correct footwork for walking the wire, about good posture, good body alignment, and balance techniques.
Improvers learn to Run, Dance, & Perform Tricks on a wire!
Advanced students progress onto more difficult tricks e.g. How to 'bourree en pointe' on the wire.
Tutor:
Jacqueline Welbourne
Jacqueline starred as an Aerialist with the world famous 'Cirque du Soleil' & won major prizes at both the 'Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain', Paris; and a 'Clown' at the 'Festival International du Cirque de Monte-Carlo' (the 'Oscars' of the circus world).
As a keen dancer: Ballet, Modern, Jazz, Tap, Tango etc. it was no surprise that at her first opportunity to 'try' the tight-wire she became addicted to testing out dancing all different styles on it, including walking in ballet shoes 'en pointe' across the wire.
Benefits:
Tight-wire is brilliant for improving your quality of posture, body alignment and balance.
It is a lovely skill to learn, and the sensation of being 'well-balanced' on the wire when you achieve it can become quite addictive!
For keen dancers Tight-wire is a particularly a favourite challenge, dancing on the Tight-wire is a real art, and you can have a great deal of fun trying out lots of different styles of dance.
For ballet dancers there is the ultimate challenge: learning to walk the Tight-wire 'en pointe'.
For gymnasts there is the ultimate challenge: learning to perform backflips and somersaults on the Tight-wire.
General Information:
Beginners start out on Tight-wires that are 0.5 metres high and will need to accomplish a series of basic exercises before moving up to a higher Tight-wire. This ensures that all our students learning these activities progress safely.
Circus Maniacs owns 3 x tight-wires at 0.5 meters; 1 x 1.0 meter; 1 x 1.5 metres; and 1 x 2.0 metres; enabling steady height progression. However most of the time the training we do is at 0.5 metres and 1.0 metres high, as these are good heights for learning and solidifing your techniques.
Appropriate footwear for tight-wire is soft shoes that have a full sole made of suede. If you have shoes like these please bring them to class. If not, Circus Maniacs has some basic workshop shoes that you can use which work fine if you are at Beginners level.
Costs:
£60 term fee + Annual membership of £15 for under 16's / £20 for 16+
Also see 'Rainbow Scheme' below.
Additional Related Weekly Courses:
- General Circus Skills (for 7 - 17's)
- Trapeze & Aerial Skills (for 7 - 17's)
- Tumbling, Acro-balance & Pyramids (for 7 - 17's)
- Chinese Pole & Acrobatics (for 7 - 17's)
- Saturday Circus Club - Multi Skills (for 7 - 17's)
- UnimaniaX - Stilts & Unicycling Troupe (for 7 - 17)
- Youth Performance Company - Multi Skills (for 10 - 26's)*
[*audition / assessment required].
N.B. There are also various Multi-skills 'Youth Short Courses' for ages 7+ during the school holidays.
Rainbow Scheme:
N.B. There are special deals for individual students aged 7+ wishing to do multiple classes i.e. sign up for this course plus other courses with us in the same term under our rainbow scheme. These are:
- RED >> any 2 x 90 minute classes £110
- ORANGE >> any 3 x 90 minute classes £150
- YELLOW >> Saturday Circus Club, plus any 1 x 90 minute class £130
- GREEN >> Saturday Circus Club, plus any 2 x 90 minute class £170
- BLUE >> Youth Performance Co, plus any 1 x 90 minute class £200
- INDIGO >> Youth Performance Co, plus any 2 x 90 minute classes £250
- VIOLET >> Youth Performance Co, plus 3 (or more) x 90 minute classes £300
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Other Ideas & Links:
- Weekly Tight-wire Classes for Adults.
- We also offer Private Tight-wire Classes.
- Book a Tight-wire Workshop at our space, or we can travel to you with our 2 portable 0.5metre high Tight-wires.
N.B. We are often used as the preferred training school for the Musical 'Barnum' - For inspiration: Check out Professional Wire-walkers on the Circus Maniacs Agency Site.
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