USF St. Petersburg honors student Miranda Cooper spends her Thursday nights at Bayside Gymnastics in St. Petersburg. Winding through the facility bustling with gymnasts of all ages, Cooper can be found in a back corner stretching on the blue mats with five other girls, their stretches reflecting on the wall-length mirror.
Beside them, two aerial silks and one white rope, called a Spanish web, hang from the tall ceiling. They are learning aerial silk, which is an aerial acrobatics that is commonly seen in circus performances.
Having done circus type skills for two years at Florida State University—one of only two schools in the United States to have collegiate circuses—Cooper began aerial dancing when she came to St. Petersburg and has been taking classes here for a year and a half. She also takes classes at BB’s Dance and Circus Arts in Clearwater.
“It was a really big hobby of mine,” said Cooper, who is currently writing her Honor’s Program thesis about aerial dancing. “I figured I’d already done so much of it, I wanted to incorporate it in a project and do something more creative.”
The thesis assignment is broad and can be research, history or something more creative. Cooper is writing her thesis and already has about 25 pages, but thinks the final project will be closer to 40. She is also making a video in April, having a videographer document an aerial routine that she is creating with the help of other dancers.
Her video will be an “under the sea” theme, and she has a mermaid costume that is open at the bottom so that she still has use of her legs. Her mother, a costume designer, is creating all of the attire for the video.
Appropriate for the theme, she plans for a bubble machine. “I have an official bubble blower position open if anyone wants it,” Cooper joked.
She is putting off picking a song. She has a list and is waiting to see which fits best. “My instructor is really good at that stuff,” Cooper said. She claims she has no rhythm whatsoever, and that background experience in dance is good, because it makes you look more graceful. She said this is something she is working on, but watching her practice, she is more graceful than she gives herself credit for.
There are between eight and 10 people committed to helping Cooper with her video, and all of them have been doing aerial dancing for at least a year. Another USFSP honors student, Chelsea Meredith, will be in Cooper’s video. An aerial dancer, she has done it for at least four years and performs semi-professionally. “She’s really good,” Cooper said. The girls met at the studio and then ran into each other at school.
Two of the dancers are Cooper’s instructors from Bayside Gymnastics, Katie Hasson and Ashley Jacobson, and will be there to spot and help out with safety.
“We’re all very trained in safety,” Cooper said. “Don’t drop your shoulders, keep your fingers wrapped. I’ve never had anything happen or seen anything happen.” Cooper said she has heard that although aerial dancing looks dangerous, there are other sports where more people get injured, such as gymnastics, football and competitive ping-pong.
“We don’t get injuries but there’s definitely rope burn, calluses, bruises, scrapes,” Cooper said. “A lot of aerialists wear skin colored tights.”
Most of what Cooper does is called stationary trapeze, meaning that there is no flying trapeze involved, although she has tried it before in a circus class at FSU. She recalls the one and only time she tried flying trapeze.
“Walking on the net with nothing under you was really scary,” Cooper said, adding that she would definitely do it again.
Aerial dancing uses mats instead of nets, with dancers up to 20 feet in the air. Foot locks help to keep them secure.
“I really like seeing something that looks crazy,” Cooper said. She watches her instructor do all this crazy looking routines, often thinking, ‘I’m never going to do that.’
“Accomplishing it is really cool,” she said. “I really like the challenge and being able to do something you never thought you could do.”
Aerial dancing comes with its challenges. “I’d say right now it’s trying to fit it into my schedule. I’m doing 17 [credit] hours of school along with the thesis and then 40 hours of work,” Cooper said.
She trains anywhere from three to nine hours a week. “It’s really hard to actually fit it in without being dead,” Cooper said. She works the night shift at her job, and is there until 7 a.m. Then she has school until 2 p.m., sleeps, and then goes to aerial class and then to work again.
“My days off, I just sleep all day,” Cooper said. “But if I wasn’t in school and working all the time, like last year, it was a lot better. I’d say the hardest part is just maintaining flexibility and strength and pushing yourself to go even when you don’t feel like it. Every time I make myself I’ve always been glad I did.”
Cooper will graduate in spring 2013 with a double major in business management and psychology. She plans to go to graduate school for something business related. After that she would love to own her own business, leaning towards a gym with an aerial program.
She has considered making aerial dancing a bigger part of her future, but said it is very difficult to be selected to perform professionally.
“If the opportunity arose where I could travel and do it that would be awesome, but I’m not counting on anything,” she said. “I just do it as a hobby for now.”
Excited to see the final outcome of her thesis, she is happy she picked something she is passionate about.
“I’m glad I picked this topic because it’s a lot of fun but simultaneously it’s a lot of work,” she said. “I just hope it comes out well.”
Photo by Margaret Spears
