The Iowa Lottery broke a world record on their 40th anniversary
The Iowa Lottery celebrated its 40th anniversary by breaking a Guinness World Record at the Iowa State Fair.
Imagine getting a bird’s eye view of the Iowa State Fair, zipping through the air, wind whipping across your face. From their trapeze rigging thirty five feet up, that’s the view April and Justin Chodkowski have seen six times a day.
The Chodkowskis are the troupe leaders of the Flying Royals, a traveling group of elite trapeze artists hailing from all across the Americas and Europe. The husband and wife duo performed all around the world as Catcher and Flier starting in 2009, but it wasn’t until 2018 that the Flying Royals were formed.
During a stint with La Nouba, a now closed Cirque du Soleil show at Disney Springs in Florida, the pair was approached by someone who wished to revive the criss-crossing trapeze act that is now synonymous with the Royals.
Watching performers zip through the air, seemingly exempt from the laws of gravity is impressive enough on its own, even more impressive is the fact that an act of this caliber has not been performed for more than twenty years.
“There’s no YouTube tutorial for us to learn the things we’re doing on the very special, unique rigging that we have,” Justin Chodkowski said. “We’re basically pioneering all of the crazy tricks and sequences, and it happens just in trying.”
The criss-crossing trapeze act that the Royals perform was originated in the Great Otari Troupe in the 1950s, according to the Royals’s website. It was performed again in the mid 1990s by the Caballero family, but thereafter, it faded away from popularity — until the Royals revived it and gave it a facelift, wowing audiences with never before seen tricks.
“We share the airspace as we’re completing these quasi-traditional meneuvers, but a lot of them are stuff we’ve completely come up with on our own,” April Chodkowski said. “We’re the only act of its kind, so you can only see them here on our rig.”
Although trapeze is the focus of their Iowa State Fair display, it isn’t the only talent these fantastical fliers possess. Catch them at one of their many other events across the United States, where they showcase juggling, slack wire balancing, aerial silks and acrobatics.
April Chodkowski estimated that each show they’ve done at the fair attracted the attention of about 1,500 people. That figure multiplied by six shows a day for eleven days running, making the Iowa State Fair one of the largest audience they’ve ever performed for.
“This is our first time in Des Moines and (it’s) absolutely the best fair we’ve been to yet,” Justin Chodkowski said. “The biggest, the most amount of people. It’s a little difficult out here because of the weather, but, you know, the amount of people surrounding us and watching our shows just puts it all to rest as much as possible.”
Norah Judson is a reporter for the Register. Reach her at [email protected].
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.desmoinesregister.com ’
