Cindy Sweeney in action.
“People don’t get injured very often, you take the proper steps,” Sweeney said. “The possibilities for injury are great, and the injuries can be big, but everyone knows that and so you take the proper steps. We were rushing, and agreeing [with the circus management] that we could make it happen. When you’re doing things you take them at a proper pace, you do them in the safety line. When you’re first learning you do tricks in a safety harness until you know what you’re doing.” Never again, said Sweeney. Lesson learned.
Ulster County Legislature Chairwoman Terry Bernardo has also been flying high ever since a vacation in 2011 at Club Med, Punta Cana where she tried it for the very first time, learning the “basic front-end tricks.” Upon returning, she came back and found the trapeze school in Tillson where she met Sweeney. “[Sweeney] has been a really big part of my learning,” said Bernardo. “I studied her back-end split video for hours, trying to get mine. She is a beautiful flyer.”
Bernardo said the Trapeze School of New York’s slogan sums up the passion well: Forget fear, worry about the addiction. She said in the beginning it’s less about the body, and more about letting go of fears and listening to the instructors, as things are happening very quickly. “I would also add that the camaraderie that you feel with the other flyers is deep,” said Bernardo. “The teamwork that it takes between the flyer, the catcher, the person working the boards and the person on lines when you perform is an amazing thing to be a part of.”
Sweeney’s next move is “up in the air” — more aerial arts, like the silks — though she continues to walk the tight rope with her time-management balancing act. (Pardon the pun.) Sweeney is also getting a new project “off the ground” (last one, we promise) — a talent agency to represent circus-style performers called Matrix Talent International.
