To celebrate the release of Water For Elephants on DVD on 5 September, I tried my hand at Circus Skills in an attempt to look as glamorous and elegant as Reese Witherspoon in the film… here’s how I got on.
You can watch the video of my attempts below.
I did a little bit of a circus skills workshop at Bracknell Sports Centre when I was growing up, and so having a day of circus training sounded like brilliant fun to me.
I was told I’ d be juggling, doing stilts and then doing the flying trapeze. Juggling I was okay with (my older brother actually taught me how to juggle three balls when I was little, and I have lots of fun with supermarket oranges) and I’ d had a go with hand-held stilts before. The flying trapeze didn’t sit so easily with me. I have no upper body strength. Honestly.
As time went on juggling changed to the tight wire, which sounded fun, and the flying trapeze simply became the trapeze, which was fine by me - easier to hold on if you’re not flying through the air, surely?
Challenge One: On the day I was shown around Circus Space in Hoxton and introduced to my instructors. First up were the stilts. These didn’t look like the stilts I’d learnt to walk on when I was younger. Instead of holding the ends in your hands, so you have control and can jump off if there are any issues, these were the kind of stilts that get strapped to your legs, so if you fall there’s no way to jump off. Oh no, you’re heading to the ground from a very high height. Luckily we were given kneepads, but I did wondered where my helmet was.
Being pulled up onto my feet from the table I had a typical ‘Anneke moment’. I panicked. I sat myself back down and said I couldn’t do it. I doubted myself. And then I was off, on my feet fast and, before I knew it, walking around all by myself. I was proud, but annoyed that as usual I didn’t just go for it from the start.
Challenge Two: The tight wire was a lot harder than it actually looked. At first, I managed to get all the way across with ease because my instructor was holding my hand. But, the strange thing about balance is that if you’ve got something to hold onto, even gently, it makes it so much easier to stay on the wire. So, Challenge Two was attempted, but didn’t go too well. I tried to focus my core balance and failed.
Challenge Three: I now see trapeze as my arch nemesis. I knew I didn’t have much upper body strength when I started, but if anything the trapeze just proved how much work I’ve got to do. A lady with two children had been having a go before my attempt and she managed it with complete ease. I, on the other hand, couldn’t even get my legs around the pole to pull myself up, and swung around in the air looking less like a ‘demi mermaid’ and more like some kind of fish out of water. Challenge Three was a definite fail.
Water For Elephants is released on DVD on 5 September
Watch the video of my attempts below
Challenge Anneke acts with Benicio Del Toro
Movie in a minute: Water for Elephants
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