[Maura Gillan | Daily Nebraskan]
“My personal goal is to have this be a training and game space… People could use the poles or the mirrors, have jam sessions or just sit in the corner with a coffee and homework.”
The circus is in town, and it's here to stay.
Six weeks ago, Big Top Performance Arts Center, owned by Ciara Searight, opened its doors as a flow arts gym, a space dedicated to activities such as juggling, hula hooping and aerial arts, like aerial silks and aerial pole.
Searight was a suspended yoga instructor at Cornhusker CrossFit until the business closed down two years ago.
Ever since, Searight, who has been an aerialist for five years, has been looking nonstop for a space to host her troop Freak Works.
“I was swinging on some tall swings and just started playing around.” Searight said. “Something felt right about it.”
Searight used to swing by herself at night to mess around and de-stress. She wondered if it was an activity people did. Searight soon discovered trapeze and aerial arts, something that hadn't even crossed her mind.
Searight traveled to Chicago to take a lesson and was immediately hooked. Once she returned, she bought a rig and some silks. It's dangerous to practice alone, so Searight invited her friends over to practice with her in her backyard.
“I would invite people to come mainly so I would have someone there to call 911,” Searight said. “However, I started teaching them and I loved it. It gave me drive.
That's when I decided I wanted to teach. It really all just formed into place.”
Searight moved to Chicago, where she lived for about nine months and became certified as an aerialist instructor.
When she returned to Nebraska, she searched almost every day for a space to convert into a flow arts gym where she could host her aerialist troop, Freak Works.
The hard part was finding a building of the right size, with the right truss support and for the right price, according to Searight. She said she got lucky when she stumbled on a brand new building built with leftover materials from a newly built warehouse just east of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's City Campus.
Over the course of about 1 and 1/2 months, half the troop worked to renovate it.
Members came in the evenings to put up drywall and install equipment. Artist Nolan Tredway painted circus-themed murals on the walls. Searight said they had to put down the floor five times because there were so many mishaps, but she is very pleased with the final product: an all-black concrete floor with sparkle stone insets.
Equipment for the space was bought slowly over time, and some of the cost came out of Searight's pockets. The troop did a kickstarter and managed to make $300, a little less than the cost of a single aerial silk.
This summer, Big Top's space was used by Cirque du Soleil when it came to Lincoln. One of the troop's aerial artists, Zoe Zabattie, taught a three-hour workshop as well. Big Top said it was more than happy to oblige.
“Our very first class was by a top-dog professional before we even opened,” Searight said.
Big Top has been open for six weeks now and offers 28 classes a week. The staff teaches flow arts like juggling and aerial silk classes, as well as self-defense and a variety of yoga classes, ranging from Mimosa Yoga, to which members can bring mimosas and other alcoholic beverages, to Rage Yoga, in which members scream profanities.
As it gets colder, Searight said she'd like to start “Monday Madness” sessions, with an open gym 4-6 p.m. every Monday. Participants could use the space as they like and seek assistance from staff if so desired.
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