August 15, 2024 / by Kay / In classes

The magic and mysterious draw of the rope

On the face of it, rope may seem like the least interesting of all the circus apparatus. Yet its unassuming simplicity is its magical complexity.

“When I look at it, I find there are so many things that can be done with it, so many different ways to move on it, so many different shapes, different parts you can hang off and different things the rope itself can become, so it feels like it has a lot of room for exploration,” said Freya Pellie (@pelliefey).

Freya, who has performed and taught across the UK including our own Easter Edge, transitioned from trapeze to rope for practical reasons, and because rope was so compelling, it became one of their main disciplines, alongside hoop and straps.

“I was advised to do rope to build strength and I was interested in doing something outside of gender norms. At the time, it was seen as one of the less feminine disciplines although now there are a lot of strong rope women who are hugely inspiring.”

Freya recommends training in a vertical-based apparatus like rope and a bar-based apparatus like hoop or trapeze.

“It helps me, to bring in different material and approaches, and I think it’s really helpful for play and innovation in your preferred apparatus if you can bring in skills, ideas and techniques from other apparatus,” they said.

“There is some overlap from being on the trapeze ropes. Rope can feel more daunting than hoop or trapeze where you can sit down, but once you learn your first few locks and rest positions, it can open up a load of different options. Then when you’re working on trapeze or hoop, there are bits of rope technique that can be brought in.

“I spent a long time trying to make the biggest knot and the biggest shapes, then focusing on how minimally I could be wrapped. Then I was bringing spinning from hoop into rope.”

Max Dunway (@max_dunway) has also been seduced by rope, having started the Aerial Edge four-week Intensive Course with experience mostly in trapeze and straps.

Their performance at the end of that course was in straps, but they’d been introduced to rope and despite a bad start, a slow-burning relationship with it began.

“I hated rope at first,” they said, “It was awful, I despised it – it was the worst thing ever in my life, I was thinking ‘What are you doing to me?!’

“I couldn’t do the things I wanted to do, I was clunky, I wasn’t strong enough.”

Max went on to the four-month Foundation Course and their final performance was rope – they were committed.

And now, after a successful rope audition, Max is off to study it for a year at Creat circus school in Valencia, Spain.

What happened?

“I think I was ready for a change, and there were some cool rope instructors, Bara and Nea, on the two full-time Aerial Edge courses.

“I began to really enjoy the flow aspect of rope, which is very different to straps.”

Max plans to maintain straps and acrobatics alongside rope, and go from Spain to Montreal or Quebec in Canada, then become a pro performer in ensemble productions, with perhaps some solo passion projects emerging on the side.

Like Max, Freya fell in love with rope over time, and now both are devoted to it.

For Freya it was grip strength that was the challenge; for Max it was upper body strength.

The process of gaining the skills developed their love for rope.

Freya said: “I felt it was full of possibilities. I liked that you could swing around bits of it, that you can could the rope itself to make shapes, and I liked the cleanness of it.

“I love it when you can tie yourself up in a big knot so it looks like there’s lots of things holding together, then you move all of it just falls away. For an audience, visually that’s quite enjoyable to watch.

“I also liked the practicality of not having to stress about rigging height when I was in different venues! Obviously, there are benefits to having a longer rope but it’s more versatile than trapeze.”

Max said: “Rope has a perceived high barrier to entry, like straps, because you need that upper body strength. But I would still say to people to try it.

“I think when I was able to dead hang it was a turning point. I felt safer – there’s no bar to sit on and you’re not locked in.

“The thing I like most is the movement quality, it’s really beautiful. You don’t need a bunch of moves, you can mess about and you can still really hone your skill to a really high technical level.”

And as for the inevitable comparison to silks?

Most people say there is no comparison.

“I don’t know why people like silks,” said Max.

Freya said: “I’m less into silks.”

And Aerial edge rope and silks instructor Nea Kunnari said: “There are some similarities but ultimately rope is a whole thing of its own.”