Trapeze School Opens in North Brooklyn

WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN — It's a common story, the one in which two molecular toxicologists take a vacation and wind up so obsessed with the flying trapeze that they turn it into a second career.

In 2000, Dave and Anne Brown were working in the pharmaceutical field when they took a Club Med vacation. One of the activities offered was a lesson on the flying trapeze.

Both liked to stay active, they said last week, but neither had tried the trapeze before.

"I took one swing," Dave, 67, said, "and I thought, why isn't this everywhere?"

"The exhilaration comes after the fear," said Anne, who is 58. After you climb to the top of the ladder, she said, you're "thinking, this is really high and the bar feels really heavy. Then you swing and it's amazing. You're flying."

Lexi Hughes prepares to take off. Photos by John V. Santore

Back in 2000, the Browns returned from their vacation, kept taking classes, and eventually founded the Trapeze School New York. The company has locations in Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., as well as a spring and summer operation in Manhattan at Hudson River Park.

And now, they've opened a year-round facility on the border of Bed-Stuy and Williamsburg, at 467 Marcy Ave. (The entrance is around the corner at 30 Tompkins Ave.)

The school offers single classes, as well as courses in both the trapeze and related disciplines, like the trampoline.

Some students have become teachers, the Browns explained, while a few have even become professional trapeze artists.

"The biggest myth is it's very dangerous," Dave said last week, as behind him, students strapped into protective harnesses took turns swinging over a net. After three swings, he continued, the fear subsides, and "the student is able to fully concentrate on the trick" they're learning.

Anne, though, offered a slightly different perspective. After learning a trick — say, hanging from the bar by your knees, otherwise known as Trapeze 101 — a student will attempt a new trick.

Each time "you want to learn something new," she said, "you're back there and you're terrified."

But instructor Toni Machi said the trepidation is worth it. She had never tried the discipline before taking an office job with the company, she explained. Now, she spends part of her work week "talking nervous people off the board" at the top of the ladder.

Up there, Machi said, "it's you and the bar. It's so personal in that moment, and you have to literally take a leap."

She said she likes "just being able to pull people outside their comfort zones." And the common reactions she observes as those zones are left behind? "Giggles or screams or shock. It's awesome."

Pictured at top: Dave and Anne Brown. Photos by John V. Santore

Editor's note: a previous version of this story incorrectly stated that the school operates in Boston, and omitted locations in Chicago and Los Angeles.