Flying trapeze

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A Brief History

Trapeze dates back to 1865, when Jules Leotard used to swing from cables attached to air vents over the pool of his parents’ gymnasium outside of Paris, France. One day he attached a metal bar to the cables and the Flying Trapeze was born. Leotard performed his first feats at a Cirque Napoleon in Paris, now called Cirque d’Hiver. The traditional flyer’s costume, the leotard, is named after him. Circus artists still perform at Cirque d’Hiver almost 150 years after Leotard.

Reference: A brief history of the trapeze


Tony Steele

Another famous name in trapeze is Tony Steele. Tony is a modern flying trapeze legend who ran away with a youth circus in Texas at the age of 15 (with his mothers blessings), and fell in love with trapeze. Visit his personal website Dreaming in Circus for more information about Tony, his life, and his incredible contribution to the world of flying trapeze. Tony currently lives in Costa Rica, Central America and works at Hotel Sueño Azul.


Traditional Flying Trapeze

In a traditional flying trapeze act, flyers mount a narrow board (usually by climbing a tall ladder), and take off from the board on the fly bar. The flyer must wait for a call from the catcher to make sure he or she leaves at the correct time. Otherwise the catcher will not be close enough to the flyer to make a successful catch. The flyer then performs one of many aerial tricks, and is caught by the catcher, who is swinging from a separate catch bar. Once in the catcher's hands, the flyer continues to swing, and is thrust back toward the fly bar in a maneuver called a "return". Once back to the fly bar, the flyer can return back to the board, and another flyer takes a turn.


Innovative Trapeze

Although many people define a flying trapeze act as an act involving two trapezes and a catcher, as of 2008 many innovative styles of flying trapeze have been performed in circuses all over the world like Cirque Du Soleil, the Flying Farfans, and the Flying Caceres, to name a few. Cirque Du Soleil's La Nouba features a bar to bar flying trapeze act, and Cirque Du Soleil's Corteo presents a high-flying act quite similar to flying trapeze, but without bars. The flyers fly from one catcher to another in an innovative adagio-influenced aerial act. Still other flying trapeze acts focus on high-flying aerial tricks from the flyers, but don't use catchers. The flyers instead perform their release tricks to the net.


Safety

Every flyer starts out wearing a safety harness. A trainer on the ground controls the lines and will pull them if the flyer is in a dangerous situation. Pulling on the lines will suspend the flyer in the air, and letting go of the lines slowly will bring the flyer to the ground safely. Once a flyer has mastered a particular trick, they will take off the safety harness. Every safe flying trapeze rig will always have a large net underneath the rig. Flyers who are not wearing safety harnesses learn how to fall safely into the net in case they miss a catch or unexpectedly fall off the bar or off the catcher. Several risky flying trapeze acts have been performed without safety nets in earlier circus days, but it would be rare to find this kind of act in 2008, as most flying trapeze acts are performed between 20 and 40 feet above the ground.


Tricks

Below is a list of flying trapeze tricks that can be thrown to a catcher;

  • Knee-hang
  • Hocks-off
  • Splits
  • Straddle Whip
  • Whip
  • Shooting Star
  • Half-turn
  • Straight Jump
  • Uprise Shoot
  • Forward Over
  • Forward Under
  • Flexus
  • Salto
  • Seat Roll
  • Planche
  • Layout
  • One and a Half
  • Cut-away Half
  • Double Salto
  • Double Layout


These are tricks that can be performed without a catcher:

  • Salute
  • Half-turn
  • Force-out turn around
  • Rear-mount
  • Suicide
  • Uprise suicide
  • Pirouette

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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