Zoe Gregg has a unique set of skills, and you would never know it if you just sat next to her in fourth hour English. A trapeze student, Gregg has been performing dangerous stunts on the trapeze for nearly three months and her efforts deserve the admiration.
“It’s an exciting activity that is definitely not run of the mill,” Gregg’s coach, Ben Fredenburg said of trapez. “Its uniqueness makes it exciting.” While most kids grow up thinking of trapeze as an act for the circus, it is a sport that is highly underrated. Trapeze is a complicated form of acrobatics through extreme aerial movements on a bar tied to a rope 25-feet in the air – an activity that even the toughest football player might shriek at. But according to Gregg, it is very safe.
“You’re always harnessed, and the only time accidents happen is when you are not harnessed in or fooling around,” Gregg, a sophomore, said. Yet she has been very safe and has proved so with her phenomenal actions and passion for her hobby, which she routinely performs at Trapeze U.
“At first when you’re going up the ladder it can be really scary,” Gregg said, showing that she still has slight fears, but overcomes them through pure love. “She’s pretty dedicated and willing to step outside the box, and is often more trusting than our adults,” Fredenburg said. “She buys into it very quickly; she wants the best results and she’s willing to trust us and push herself.”
While the thrill of gliding and jumping through the air is something that Gregg says cannot be matched in any other sport, it does come with its share of dings and bruises .“The first time I did it I had huge calluses all over my hands. My hands were wrapped up and all my friends kept calling me a zombie,” she explained after all the pain she endures through this extreme sport.
Along with “zombie-hands,” Gregg’s story also has another interesting twist. Trapeze is not only a hobby – it is also a family passion that extends to her mother, Tina and brother, Noah, who used to trapeze until he saw the standard uniform of performers.
“My brother used to do it, but once he saw what we had to wear, he was like, ‘No!’” she said of the tights that trapeze artists are required to wear. However, Gregg concurs that the outfits are outrageous and could do without them.
Tina, who has being doing advanced trapeze for three years, is also a Fly Instructor at Trapeze U. “I can’t think of any situation where we’ve had either siblings working together or parent child working together. It’s a pretty unique situation,” Fredenburg said. It is truly a dream job and love for the sport that drew Gregg into following her mother’s footsteps.
However, she says that training can be a hassle between practice and schoolwork. “It’s hard to juggle schoolwork and trapeze, so I’m just taking a break,” she said, as it can get out-of-hand with school projects and such along with a trapeze practice. With practices once a week for eight weeks periods, it is a challenge to juggle trapeze with her studies.
