When he was at Glenwood High School, Jordan Tribble mostly channeled his athletic and creative energy toward martial arts, cross country and football.

After graduating in 2011, however, he discovered trapeze, and hasn’t looked back since. Before leaving for Montreal to work with Cirque du Soleil, he sat down with the Post Independent to discuss it.

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How did you get involved with trapeze?

I moved out to Los Angeles. I was looking for a job, and my uncle — a gymnast who got me into Cyr wheel — introduced me to the president of the trapeze school. It just kind of took off from there.

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Once I started flying, I thought it was the best thing ever, and I wanted to do it every day. Then, when you take the safety lines off, it’s a whole incredible different feeling. I don’t even know how to explain it.

It’s just so free.

How do you overcome the fear factor?

A lot of people actually get more scared to do flying trapeze than to skydive. You’re closer to the ground, so you have less time to react.

There’s definitely an adrenaline rush standing on the board holding onto a bar looking over. Even though the ground is close it seems very far away.

It’s a weird movement to try to understand, but once you start it’s like music. After you do it for a while, something that seemed odd becomes really familiar, and then it becomes a whole song.

After a little more than a year of training I went professional and went to Japan. That was a stepping stone in my career. I learned a lot. When you have 14 shows a week, you kinda turn onto autopilot. It becomes an everyday job.

What are the people you work with like?

We’re all circus folk, so everyone has their own quirks, but we all understand that. You go into it knowing that this guy’s gonna be weird. With everyone I’ve been with, it’s been very collaborative.

When you go onto a new team, it changes the dynamics, but one thing you know for sure is that you have to trust this person.

What’s it like to blend the athletic and the artistic?

There’s a training side, and there’s a performance side. There’s the part where you try to get the tricks you want down.

When it comes to having an audience, it’s all about them. When you land you’re not thinking about your trick anymore, because it’s over.

You’re focusing on the crowd and trying to get them interested and excited. If you think too much, you can’t do anything.

Tell us about Cirque du Soleil.

It’s really exciting. It’s basically research and development. They have a certain type rigging they’ve designed, and it’s our job to figure out what we can do on it.

In some ways, I have no idea what I’m getting myself into. In some ways, I’ve done this, but it’s a completely different level. There’s an intimidation, but I know that I can do whatever they put in front of me.