CAY HILL--Jiska and Annelies Steenbeek hosted an acrobatic gymnastic exhibition at the National Institute for Arts (NIA) at Asha Stevens Christian Hillside School on Saturday.
The Steenbeek sisters are both gold and silver medal champion gymnasts from the Netherlands.
Jiska has been performing in this highly competitive sport for over eighteen years. She retired in 2009 to focus on raising her family. Upon her retirement, Steenbeek began coaching young girls, and later she became a judge in the sport. She is currently on vacation on St. Maarten spending time with her family. She generously offered some of her vacation time to inspire the young girls at NIA to become professional acrobatic gymnast.
Annelies recently joined the NIA Gymnastic team as coach. She competed in the sport for sixteen years and has been able to travel around the world and see different cultures.
Acrobatic gymnastic is a disciplined sport for teams of two, three or four, who perform acrobatic flips, dance and tumbles together while flowing to the rhythmic sounds of music. The team’s performance is based on strength, flexibility, balance and coordination while executing dynamic throws, somersaults, catches and lifts. The performance becomes a breath-taking tempo that speeds up and slow down as the team's movement gracefully looks like a solo performance.
The NIA Gymnastic Coaching team consists of Peggy Oulerich, Stephanie Haseth, Ambarl Gounden and Annelies. The gymnastic team trains at the school gym in Cay Hill, three times a week.
