Have you ever looked at an animal and become very jealous of how flexible they are? As an aerialist I often find myself looking at the orangutans in awe as they effortlessly do a perfect split followed by an over split. All whilst being about 10 feet high up in the enclosure!
Aerial Silks
Aerial silks is a type of performance in which artists perform acrobatics suspended from fabric. No safety lines are used, the artist simply relies on their training and skill to remain safe. Tricks include climbing to great heights, contortion and dropping in various styles. It is regarded as the most difficult of the aerial arts. It requires a lot of dedication, flexibility, stamina and practise!
I started silks about 4 years ago and fell in love with it, I had no other form of similar training before, starting from scratch. I spent a long time building up strength and learning to climb and invert. In the first 5 months or so expect to get a lot of bruises! After a while you start to kill off the nerve endings in the areas where the silks are tight against the skin. This is what stops you from getting bruises for experienced aerialists. Crazy right?!
Now, I know what you’re thinking… why on earth would anyone want to put themselves through this? But it is a such a beautiful and rewarding sport. It has been my go-to for completely detaching from everything as, let’s face it, when you’re 10 ft high up on silks and the only thing stopping you falling is doing the correct wrap, you’re not going to have anything else on your mind than that! It’s good to take your mind elsewhere every now and again and silks is not only an incredible full body workout, but it’s good for the soul!
The skill set required for silks is something which I’ve had to work really hard to obtain. However, strength and flexibility come naturally to some of our animals in the park. Their incredible adaptations are the envy of aerialists everywhere! I have compiled a list of animals at WWP with skills I am jealous of!
Orangutans
Incredibly fit, flexible and fantastic climbers! The hips of orangutans are highly mobile and give full rotation of their joints. This allows their legs to move at almost any angle! Humans have this extensive range of rotation only in the shoulder joints, allowing the arms to move freely. Orangutans have flexible knee and ankle joints, enabling them to jump, twist, grip and balance as they swing from branch to branch.
Clouded leopards
I have been lucky enough to have worked with a lot of clouded leopards and they are one of the best climbers in the cat family. A clouded leopard’s grip is so firm that it can climb upside down underneath tree branches and hang from branches with its hind feet. Its flexible ankle joints can rotate backward too. This allows the cat to climb down tree trunks headfirst, just like a squirrel. Pretty incredible!
Binturongs
These amazing animals have a prehensile tail that acts like a 5th limb, they use it to grip branches and help them to climb. Their tail is so muscular that they can support most of their body weight from it. Binturongs also have ankle joints that can rotate 180 degrees, allowing them to descend tree trunks head-first with great ease.
Sloths
A lot of an aerialists time is spent hanging upside down in the silks. For us humans this can be quite difficult to do for long periods of time. Sloths however spend roughly 90% of their lives hanging upside down! This is made possible because their organs are attached to their rib cage, which means they don’t weigh down on the lungs. This means that, unlike us, a sloth can hang upside down with no effect on its breathing. They also hang and climb around using their hook-like nails. These are so thick and strong that they can hold their body weight from their nails and use nearly no energy in doing so.
Alright Sid, now you’re just showing off!
Red panda
One of the skills in silks is to try to look elegant and smile whilst you are most likely in a lot of pain! I often see our red panda, Mai, climbing the tree branches with great ease and always looking gorgeously photogenic as she does so! Red pandas have developed a false thumb (extended wrist bone) which helps them climb. They also use their thick tails to steady themselves and maintain perfect balance whilst high up in the tree.
So, if any of our talented animals have inspired you to learn some new aerial skills and give silks a try there are beginner aerial silks classes all over the UK and I highly recommend giving it a go!
