I Went To Brooklyn Trapeze School & Learned How Weak My Core Is

Video by Jessica Leibowitz

If you don't have a problem with heights in New York, there are plenty of ways you can taunt gravity and risk arrest. You can climb the Brooklyn Bridge and take a selfie, for instance, or base jump off the top of One World Trade Center. Or you can try the newly-opened Brooklyn location of Trapeze School New York in Bed-Stuy (467 Marcy Avenue, in the parking lot of the Pfizer Building), which lets you get high off the ground, take flight and is legal. Also, there's a net.

Stepping up onto a trapeze platform is not unlike walking up to the edge of a roof at a building, except that instead of people at the party yelling at you about "be careful" and "you've had way too many beers," there are safety lines and someone holding onto you as you lean over the edge. Still, the first few moments are a little intimidating, as you wonder if your brain will freeze up once you hang ten toes over the edge of a board and wait to jump off. As it turns out in my case, I didn't freeze up, which is fortunate for the purposes of the above video.

There's a carefree feeling to swinging once you get to it, but that vanishes when you attempt to start flipping yourself into position to get your knees over the bar. Would you like to feel terribly out of shape or inflexible? Trapeze is for you! Never have I been so aware of my lack of core strength, especially since the four consecutive attempts at flipping over caused my abs to seize up on me about an hour after I was finished. Your adrenaline gets pumping after you step off the platform and start falling, but once that fades, you'll be feeling it.

Ultimately though, I'm glad I learned I could get over the bar and that I'm definitely not afraid of heights, and that I didn't tear a hamstring while attempting my daring feats of trapeze flying. I'm told it gets easier the more you do it, and if you're curious after watching me, good news: TSNY is having an open house at the new spot this Friday, August 5th from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. You'll be able to bounce around on their trampoline, try out the trapeze swing and generally get a sense of what the wonderful world of trapeze is like. There'll also be a raffle for tickets to an August 26th Yankees game against the Orioles, which will allow you to see what a first place baseball team looks like if you win them!