Guest Instructor: Caitlyn Larsson

Class Descriptions:

Split the Silks – Did you know there are two? (1.5 hr)
Get beyond the cross backs and belays and begin to discover the full potential of splitting the silks. Learn a reverse dive through into hand locks, back thread thrus into cruxafix, a back balance descent, and more. Ability to climb to the top of a fabric and invert in the air is essential for this workshop. Now let’s separate those fabrics and see what they can really do!

Pre-requisites: Ability to climb to the top and invert unassisted. Double foot locks in the air.

Party Tricks Level 2 – Dynamic Group and Partner Acro (1.5 hr)
Whether you want to learn some strong foundations of dynamic group acro, or just learn some tricks to impress your friends, this workshop is for you. Find some simple dance like acro moves to spice up a routine. Swing a human like a bag of potatoes and send them like a koala into someone else’s arms. Pop someone *almost* effortlessly to standing on your shoulders. Can you handstand? Do it on people. This workshop will cover basics, safety and spotting for all included tricks.

Requirements: Willingness to try new things and have people climb all over you.

Duo Silks – Feel the Squeeze (1.5 hr)
Do you love supporting other people? Letting others hang from you while enduring various amounts of pain and cinching? Then this is definitely the workshop for you. We will get an overview of a variety of different ways to hold weight while on the fabric and delve into the mechanics of balancing while doubled up in the air. There will also be directed play for the invention of new basing techniques. Then we will move past positions and into transitions – how to seamlessly move from one basing position to another, without your act looking like another “trick, pose” routine.

Pre-requisites: Ability to invert in the air, an open mind about basing AND flying, and the mindset to always take care of the person who’s in the air with you.

Innovative Ways to Bruise Yourself – A Feisty Lyra Workshop (1.5 hr)
Discover new ways to navigate this circle of metal pain that will impress an audience and generally leave some impressive marks on your skin! This workshop will break down dynamic beats, continuous rolls, and traditional drops while showing you how to sequence them and take it one step farther. Layers of tight fitted clothing are recommended. The best bruise photos win a spot in the bruise gallery on my website.

Pre-requisites: Ability to invert solo, do a pullover and a front balance on the lyra.

Double People ≠ Double Pain – Some Duo Lyra Fun (1.5 hr)
Lyra is a beautiful apparatus, though it often seems to be best suited for never dizzying contortionists. For those of us who don’t fold up like a pretzel, double lyra is seldom tapped goldmine of stunning poses, innovative basing, and graceful transitions. It’s a fantastic vessel for creating exciting new work with ample opportunity for heavy character work. And while lyra will always hurt, double the people doesn’t always mean double the pain, sometimes it means triple!

Requirements: Ability to invert and sit up on lyra without assistance.

Sling Time (Hammock) (1.5 hr)
It’s sling time. Get wrapped up in a million different ways on this often under-looked apparatus. We’ll cover some unique transitions, new entries into old tricks and a few dynamic rolls and flips. Discover all the ways this lovely loop of fabric can go right up your butt whilst making you look like an absolute star (from the right angle ;-). This is the next level of Sling-ography (offered in 2019).

Requirements: Ability to pull over into sling and invert in the air.

Handstands and Flexibility (1.5 hr)
Although standing on your hands seems fairly simple, there is a lifetime of technique in mastering the skill set for a solid and steady handstand. In this class, master the basics and figure out how to turn yourself upside down safely and efficiently. If you already have your handstand, learn techniques for improving your form and the steps necessary for moving onto more advanced moves, like lever ups and one handed handstands. In addition, we will delve into some deep partner stretching and go over some ways to increase and maintain your flexibility.

No experience necessary.

About Caitlyn:

Caitlyn Larsson is a jack of all trades, and attempting to become master of a few. She is a flying trapeze and aerial artist, who moonlights as a travel and content writer in her spare time. She received a BFA in theater and education from New York University and after a brief stint as a professional tour director (If you look out the right side of the bus, you’ll see the Statue of Liberty), she discovered and fell in love with circus. After sprinting off to England for some whirlwind training at Circomedia in flying trapeze, aerial arts and acrobatics, Caitlyn became a roving circus vagrant, traveling the globe performing and teaching. Quickly realizing that the wandering circus lifestyle is not always the most lucrative or stable, especially when attempting to keep up with those pesky NYU loans, she fell back on her impeccable grammar and highly praised writing skills to help pay the bills. Now, with a ‘work hard and smart’ work ethic, Caitlyn balances out her life as a teacher, performer, director and writer with grace and dignity, and only a few harried late nights.

She can be found teaching workshops and performing original circus acts around the world, all the while enjoying the freedom of writing on the go. She spent 2 years in San Juan, Puerto Rico, employed as the new rig manager for Trapeze School New York, crafting shows for Bahia Urbana in Old San Juan, helping with the inaugural International Circus Festival in PR, and plotting ways to bring Clowns Without Borders to the island. She took some time to gallivant around Fiji and New Zealand, attempting to surf and teaching workshops to locals. There was a stint in San Francisco, meeting colorful West Oakland locals, and the direction of a full length circus show in Dallas before fleeing the country for some rest, relaxation and more workshops and performance in SE Asia and Australia. Currently she can be found in Melbourne, studying exercise science by day and moonlighting as Marilyn in her one woman comedy show at night.