Her legs end a few centimeters below her knees.
She hooks one over the silk to hang upside down, then wraps the fabric around her waist.
Her glittery false eyelashes shimmer in the light as she poses before launching herself into a breathtaking drop.
Erin Ball performs on the trapeze.
Aerialists, as performers are called, combine grace andflexibilitywith serious core andupper-body strengthto pull off jaw-dropping moves.
A decade into her career as a performer and teacher, Ball makes it all look easy.
A police dog found her six days later, unconscious and suffering from extreme frostbite.
Doctors amputated her damaged feet and part of her lower legs.
I didnt know any amputees, Ball tells SELF.
Eventually she decided something had to change.
She wanted to go back to circus training, though she wasnt sure if it was possible.
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She arranged to hang her silks at a friends fitness studio.
The ceiling was lower than ideal and she was out of shape.
Ball slowly made her way up several flights of stairs to the space.
She quickly realized a lot of things wouldnt work the way they had before.
Her new feet wouldnt flex, a key motion that helps aerialists brace themselves on the silks.
The prosthetic legs weighed her down and the silks twisted them in painful ways.
I felt like I had a pinky toe and it was on fire, she remembers.
But Ball persevered, relearning all the basics with her prosthetic legs on.
Then she took them off and started experimenting.
Creatively that just opened up so much, she says.
But she says amputation has almost always made tricks harder whether shes wearing her prosthetic legs or not.
When she doesnt have her prostheses on, shes using her inner thighs to grip the fabric.
When she does wear her prosthetic legs, they weigh about 13 pounds total.
At the time, she had no idea how she might do that.
Since then, shes developed a curriculum for aerial circus coaches to train amputees, called Flying Footless.
I’m a lot more confident in working with different bodies, she says.
Now I see it as a really interesting, fun challenge.
The trainers role is to offer suggestions and not be too rigid about doing things a specific way.
Let go of the standards, she says.
If its not there for a safety reason, don’t be afraid to let it go.
I really believe that there’s no such thing as wrong unless somebody is hurting themselves or somebody else.
Amputation has changed how she defines success for herself and her students.
Before she prized a certain aesthetic in the air: super straight legs, super pointed toes.
Today she has fun expressing her identity as an amputee and finding the humor in it.
She wants new amputees to know the transition after surgery is hard, but it doesnt stay that way.
My life is actually better now, Ball says.
Ive built a community and just connect with people on a much deeper level than I used to.
