Real secret to that Dirty Dancing move is bond
Remember that scene in Dirty Dancing?
The bit where Patrick Swayze lifts his woman aloft and twirls her round in the air?
Just the thought of it makes grown men feel a double hernia coming on.
But, lovebirds, that could be YOU on Valentine's Day.
Arms like steel girders are not required and neither is a waif-like partner... It's all in the technique, as they say..
Acrobatic act Deo – alias Cleo Cutcher and Duncan Cosgrove – are about to show me theirs.
One minute they're standing side by side; a millisecond later, she's soaring like a bird above his head.
The Dirty Dancing move is clearly a piece of cake for them, so they show me some trickier moves from their repertoire...
Cleo, the "flyer", stands in front of Duncan for a second or so, then in one deft movement, he hoists her onto his shoulders where she composes herself, then proceeds to raise one leg high into the air.
It's incredible; she is balanced on one foot, on one of his shoulders. No wires. No trickery. And no safety net. If I wasn't seeing it with my own eyes, I wouldn't believe it was possible.
But they are not finished yet. Silently and swiftly, the position changes; now she is suspended in mid-air by the one foot she has wrapped around his neck.
It's all about weight distribution and counterbalance; Duncan, the "base", leans backwards as she leans forwards, placing her other foot on his knee. And together, they create a perfectly balanced piece of human sculpture.
They look graceful and fragile – but that belies the strength of the bodies that are supporting this acrobatic artwork.
Perhaps the most awe-inspiring of their positions sees the couple cheek to cheek – in the most spectacular fashion. Cleo is upside down, with her head on Duncan's shoulders. Her legs point to the gabled roof of the church.
These two, they remind me of Torvill and Dean, minus the ice; Darren and Lilia without the music.
There is indeed a similarity, they say. Dancers use similar techniques to perform their lifts and offset their weight against each other for stability and balance.
Cleo has a 10-year career as an acrobat to draw on, but Duncan was a juggler until two years ago.
"I'm proof that anyone can do it," he says. "Couples who come to the Valentine workshop will definitely be able to perform four or five moves by the end of the session. You don't need to be massively fit or play sport. Both do help greatly with your strength and co-ordination, but far more important is technique. And the real secret to it is developing a bond of trust and to learning how to hand over control."
The vulnerable flyer has to trust the base not to drop her on her head – or ignore the fact that she's feeling wobbly and getting scared, says Cleo.
"I trust Duncan to support me and be my safe base – and to listen to me if something is wrong and respect my fears," she says, sounding like she's reading a Relate marriage guidance pamphlet.
Yet step out or the circus ring and they're not even a couple. In addition, they have only been performing together for six months. (Their speciality is a acrobatic diamond thief routine and they teach acrobalance at Greentop on Tuesday evenings).
She says: "You do get to know someone very quickly when you're doing acrobalance with them. You have to be very direct; you can't be all polite about it if you're on your other half's shoulders and it's going wrong up there."
Duncan says: "We have seen single people end up in relationships through out workshop classes. I think it's because there's such a lot of physical intimacy – it cuts a few corners." And this is a chap who can now tell what Cleo is trying to communicate by the look in her eye or the squeeze of her hand on his shoulder.
Cleo has had a fair few falls in her time, though Duncan wasn't responsible for any of them. "The worst one was when I was at the top of a human pyramid which toppled," she explains. Which leads me to presume her job is the hardest.
"Not at all," she insists. "The flyer has to be fast and graceful and the base has to be strong and trustworthy. But both jobs are equally challenging in differing ways, just as the roles are in a marriage."
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Friday 10 February 2012
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