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AMBI of tent under narration
NARR
Inside the chalk-white tent, cables and ropes hang like vines. Identical red oriental rugs cover the floor.
Thirty feet in the air, Emily de la Bruyere stands at the edge of a platform. One hand grabs a trapeze bar. The other stretches out behind her. She pushes her hips forward as her spotter grips the safety belt around her waist. It's the only thing keeping her back.
Then her coach JC Morrison yells out:
SOUND: hep
TIME :01
NARR
And she's off, flying through the air on the trapeze bar.
SOUND trapeze
The rope zips through her coach's hands as he yells for her to bring her knees to the bar.
It's Emily's 15th birthday and this is her party.
ACT BRUYERE
TIME :04
I'm slightly addicted. I've been here several times and I'm obsessed.
NARR
Her parents have paid for a private trapeze class for Emily and her friends. One by one the girls take turns swinging on the trapeze. Now it's Zoe Skoufalos' turn. She drops from the bar and flops onto the net on her back. She flips out of the net and runs to her friends.
ACT: SKOUFALOS with friends
TIME :10
It's so cool. The feeling you get when you're flying, it's like your heart is falling out of you. Whatever. It just wasn't there at one point.
NARR
Some of the girls are nervous. Katherine Burns, a wispy 14-year-old with strawberry blond curls and braces, is scared of heights. First, she planned to just watch the class.
But in the end, she climbed the 23 rungs up the ladder to the 30-foot high platform.
ACT BURNS
TIME :11
And then once I get there and look down, I just try to remember that lots of people have done it before me and contrary to my own personal belief that I'm going to die, that I probably won't.
NARR
Later the lesson gets more difficult.
Some girls try catching, like Catherine Haywood. This time she flies on the trapeze to her catcher Evan, who is swinging on another trapeze. On cue, she lets go of the bar and they grab each others' arms and fly together.
SOUND under coach: now that's a catch
It's Catherine's first catch and her friends cheer her on.
SOUND of cheers under
SOC
This is Laura Isensee, Columbia Radio News.