It’s not a jewelry store. It’s not a restaurant. You’ll never guess the newest business headed to Skagway’s Historic District.
Skagwegians might have heard a rumor that the circus is coming to town. That’s not quite true but Skagway will be getting a trapeze platform.
Trapeze artist and coach Katia Aryeh bought the wooded lot on Seventh and Spring, near City Hall. She’s turning it into an 1898 trapeze experience.
Aryeh first came to Skagway on a Disney cruise with her children. Since then, it has been calling to her. She returned again and explored Dyea. That’s when she knew she found her next journey.
“I just felt like that was where my soul felt at home,” she says. “And I wasn’t exactly wanting to leave California and looking for a place. It was more like it found me.”
When the owners of the flying trapeze in Santa Monica where Aryeh coached decided to retire, it was time to move forward.
Gold Rush Trapeze is slated to open in July. It’s an experience, not a show. A small group of people can enter at one time. The participant straps into a harness and under the supervision of staff, takes flight.
“It’s not dangerous” Aryeh says. “There are risks of course, but it’s, I mean, safer than riding a bike. You have a very soft net, and you’re in a harness the entire time. And we have extremely skilled instructors that are the best of the best.”
Aryeh’s rig master is Peter Gold, who formerly worked for Ringling Bros. & Barnum and Bailey Circus.
Aryeh thinks trapeze will fit right into Skagway’s aesthetic. Historically, variety acts traveled first on wagons, then on trains, following the gold rushes. Those shows often included a trapeze.
Trapeze artists don’t call themselves aerialists but sometimes refer to themselves as flyers. This flyer says the hardest part of the project has been preparing to build a small, commercial building in Alaska. She says doing tricks in the air is easier.
Ironically, Aryeh is afraid of heights. A dance minor in college, she didn’t try trapeze until she was 30.
“I was definitely the one of the group that was the most scared out of anybody,” she says. “I was practically crying on the board. But I knew from my first swing that it was what I was meant to be doing. And I went back, and back and back. And I quickly outgrew the professional instructors at that rig and moved on to train, you know, with the pros and longtime fliers in the backyard of one of the greatest flyers in Ringling Brothers history.”
Aryeh hopes to give her customers the experience of running away with the circus.
“I’ve seen the most jaded adults smile for the first time in forever swinging on a trapeze,” she says. “I’ve seen people you know, who otherwise would not get along, become really close and support each other all because they’re sharing this one piece of equipment. It’s, it’s really a magical thing.”
Aryeh plans to give free trapeze classes to local children.
