You don’t need to run away from home to join the circus

Date:January 5, 2005 / year-entry #3
Tags:non-computer
Orig Link:https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20050105-00/?p=36793
Comments:    6
Summary:Last week, I saw a performance of Circus Contraption at The Seattle Center with some friends. We were all left agape by the aerialists as they climbed ropes, hoisted, hung, and balanced themselves high above the ground. I thought back to seeing acrobats as a child at the circus and realized how much more impressive...

Last week, I saw a performance of Circus Contraption at The Seattle Center with some friends. We were all left agape by the aerialists as they climbed ropes, hoisted, hung, and balanced themselves high above the ground.

I thought back to seeing acrobats as a child at the circus and realized how much more impressive they are as you get older and realize how much strength, balance, and just plain nerves are required to accomplish these amazing feats. When you're a kid, nothing is impossible. Hanging upside-down by the crook of your ankles doesn't sound so hard when you're a kid. When you're older, the same feat makes you shiver with excitement.

To learn more, you can read an article from the University of Washington school newspaper (click through to the "mangled" version to see pictures) or read the blog of an Aerialistas member.

If you too want to join the circus, you don't need to leave Seattle. You can take flying lessons with Trapezius, the school where the Aerialistas train. Or, as one of my friends discovered, you can go for a broader circus training at The School of Acrobatics and New Circus Arts.

I hadn't realized how much circus-y stuff there is in Seattle. In addition to Circus Contraption, my friend also pointed out Teatro ZinZanni, a sort of dinner theater circus thing.

Comments (6)
  1. Memet says:
    January 5, 2005 at 9:24 am

    Rock on Raymond, for the appreciation.

    I’m actually a circus performer myself, based in Montreal, Canada. I do silks. I kind of stumbled into it about 3 years ago completely at random. Just had never even crossed my mind up till that point.

    It turns out it’s ‘easy’. In that I’ve been training for 3 years (3~4 hours a day I must add), and despite being 25 I’m pretty much a professional now. I had some background in the arts, but really nothing intense like gymnastics or ballet.

    I still make my bread money by programming about a 3rd of my time…

    If you want to check out the school, go right ahead, you are bound to meet cool people who most likely will be as varied in backgrounds as you can imagine: when I first went to a recreational school, there was a surprising amount of technical oriented people (e.g. doctors, programmers etc)

    Anyways, thanks again for being appreciative about it.

  2. Memet says:
    January 5, 2005 at 9:29 am

    Being high up isn’t as scary as you might think… or rather, it’s not scary in the way you might expect.

    My last gig was at around 40 feet, and looking down, it really looks ok. The really freaky part is looking up because you are so close to things that really should not be close to you: for example you can see all the little details of the lighting grid, the lights themselves (which are actually pretty big, and very hot), and even fire sprinklers. They’re just there about 4 feet from your reach, and when you stop and think about it, you really wonder what the heck you’re doing up there =)

    But then your music cues in, and perform you go =)

  3. Scott says:
    January 5, 2005 at 10:39 am

    They had a trapeze school set up by the Hudson river (I think) in NYC over the summer. I wonder if that’s the new fad, or if it’s over by now?

  4. Chip H. says:
    January 5, 2005 at 12:09 pm

    There’s also the Florida State Circus:

    http://www.circus.fsu.edu/

    It’s open to any student who wants to learn to perform an act.

  5. Ryan Phelps says:
    January 5, 2005 at 3:20 pm

    As an alumni myself, I recommend the Wenatchee Youth Circus for all those people in Washington. I spent some good summers with them in my youth. They usually do a show for Renton River Days if you want to check them out and live near enough.

  6. stuartd says:
    January 6, 2005 at 5:59 am

    Hi Raymond: a bit offtopic but I was looking at the MS community blog portal and you got 4/5 for MS blogs:

    Microsoft Blogs

    Tips/Support

    Raymond Chen, Nov 15, 2004

    Other

    Raymond Chen, Dec 2, 2004

    History

    Raymond Chen, Dec 1, 2004

    Krzysztof Cwalina [Why is this a category?]

    Krzysztof Cwalina, Nov 18, 2004

    Code

    Raymond Chen, Dec 13, 2004

    Keep up the good work!

    Stuart

Comments are closed.


*DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN THIS CONTENT. If you are the owner and would like it removed, please contact me. The content herein is an archived reproduction of entries from Raymond Chen's "Old New Thing" Blog (most recent link is here). It may have slight formatting modifications for consistency and to improve readability.

WHY DID I DUPLICATE THIS CONTENT HERE? Let me first say this site has never had anything to sell and has never shown ads of any kind. I have nothing monetarily to gain by duplicating content here. Because I had made my own local copy of this content throughout the years, for ease of using tools like grep, I decided to put it online after I discovered some of the original content previously and publicly available, had disappeared approximately early to mid 2019. At the same time, I present the content in an easily accessible theme-agnostic way.

The information provided by Raymond's blog is, for all practical purposes, more authoritative on Windows Development than Microsoft's own MSDN documentation and should be considered supplemental reading to that documentation. The wealth of missing details provided by this blog that Microsoft could not or did not document about Windows over the years is vital enough, many would agree an online "backup" of these details is a necessary endeavor. Specifics include:

<-- Back to Old New Thing Archive Index