Tightrope walk
A tightrope dance is an action in which one or more people walk, dance and perform other tricks on a tightly stretched or sagging rope.
History and Development
The art of tightrope walking was already used by the Greeks in antiquity , but it was much more common with the Romans . A distinction was Funambuli based on strong ropes, and Neurobatae running on gut strings. The latter were also called Aërobatae ("air dancers") because, with the thinness of the strings, they seemed to dance in the open air from a distance. Pieces of rope dancer can be found on vases and wall paintings from antiquity. Some coins from Kyzikos even depict climbing the tower rope.
Later tightrope walkers came to Constantinople from India and Egypt . In the Middle Ages one knew Indian, Persian and Oriental jugglers of this kind. The tightrope walker Arcangelo Tuccaro wrote an illustrated book about his art (Paris 1599).
A tightrope act is an acrobatic performance by tightrope walkers on a tightrope . Before the invention of the wire rope in 1834, acrobatics was practiced on hemp ropes. The first tightrope act took place at the beginning of the 20th century. The crossing of Niagara Falls or the space between the twin towers of the World Trade Center was spectacular .
Distinction
Performances on the slack or dance rope are called tight rope dancing, on the high rope one speaks of (wire) rope running.
Slack rope
The slack rope is a rope hanging loosely between two fixed points. On this, various tricks are demonstrated in balancing . Slight sideways swinging movements keep the artist in balance . In addition to running and turning on the slack rope, there are many different tricks such as unicycling , juggling , hand and headstands, and swinging.
Dance rope (stiff rope)
Like the slack rope, the dance rope is attached to two fixed points at a height of up to 4 m. However, it is tensioned with a tensile force of up to 40 kN. It is therefore also called a stiff rope, translated directly from the English "tight rope". A balance fan that is teardrop-shaped or circular often serves as a balance aid. A special feature of the dance rope is the suspension, which is used in particular by French artists. This facilitates the dance performance with jumps, turns and sequences of steps. The rope lengths in this discipline are around 5 m. Guyed ropes or free-standing devices are used. Side bracing like on high ropes is unusual.
High wire
A high rope, like the dance rope, is a tightly taut rope made of wire and is used at greater heights. In the circus the height is about 8 to 10 meters, outdoors it can be over a hundred meters. High wire runners usually use a balance pole that is between 5 m and 20 m long and up to 30 kg in weight to achieve a greater moment of inertia and a lower center of gravity , which makes balancing much easier. Some artists, especially from America and Spain, also work freehand, but then mostly on a relatively short rope. With the usual heights outdoors and the rope lengths of up to several hundred meters, it is almost impossible to withstand the wind and the vibrations that occur without a balancing rod. Long ropes are secured at certain intervals with guy ropes ("Cavaletti") on the side to prevent excessive swinging.
On the taut rope (dance rope or high rope) you can also do wheel strokes, arcs, splits or jumps, you can ride a specially prepared unicycle or sit on a chair.
Tricks on the rope
Sometimes a high wire act is started with the ascent on the stay cable, which is more difficult the more the rope is inclined. One of the oldest tricks is walking with stilts or baskets on your feet and with your eyes blindfolded. Wheelbarrows were pushed over the rope and people were carried. After cycling, unicycles and motorcycles are also used on the high wire.
In addition to various forms of two and three-man highs - the upper man stands upright on the shoulders or on the head of the lower man or in a handstand - pyramids are built, with two lower men being connected by a shoulder bar on which an upper man stands. In this way, the Wallenda troops succeeded in 1947 in the famous seven-man pyramid (four lower men, two people in the middle and one above). However, the Camilio Mayer and Camilla Mayer troops showed the seven-man pyramid before 1943.
In 1950, the six-man pyramid was shown for the first time by the Bob Gerry troupe (three lower men, two people in the middle and one above). This pyramid remained the highlight and an integral part of this high-wire act until the troops were disbanded in November 1963. Bob Gerry (real name: Alois Geryk) and his wife Ruth were former members of the Camilla Mayer troupe.
Particularly daring feats are movements without a balancing pole on the high wire, such as skipping sitting partner, jumping rope, epee fencing, riding on the saddle-less unicycle ( " Ultimate Wheel ") and backflip .
Famous tightrope walkers and troops
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- Karl Knie (1813–1860) from the Knie Circus dynasty
- Rabadan Hassanowitsch Abakarov (born November 7, 1917)
- Carmo Bauer (artist family Bauer)
- Charles Blondin (Jean François Gravelet-Blondin) (February 28, 1824 - February 22, 1897) was the first to cross the Niagara Falls on a rope (June 30, 1859).
- Carlos Camadi
- Pedro Carrillo (born November 2, 1946)
- The Coppini family, performed in Munich and Augsburg in 1809, toured across Europe. Specialty: pantomimes and ballets on a taut rope
- David Dimitri
- Masha Dimitri
- Bob Gerry Troop (1944–1963)
- Sibling wisdom
- Great Alzana (Harold Davis) (1918? † February 16, 2001)
- Benno and Lothar Kastein (born December 13, 1956 and July 15, 1954)
- Freddy Nock (* 1964)
- Camilio Mayer (born April 25, 1890 - May 21, 1972)
- Camilla Mayer as the stage name of several high wire artists
- Gene Mendez (1934--23 August 1993)
- Los Quiros
- Philippe Petit (born August 13, 1949)
- Madame Saqui (February 26, 1786 - January 21, 1866)
- Joe Seitz (born 1929)
- Maria Spelterini (born November 9, 1850 -?) Was the first woman to cross Niagara Falls on a rope in 1876 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the USA .
- Rudolfo-Stey-Truppe (Stey family of artists since 1437)
- Konrad Thurano (April 4, 1909 - November 20, 2007)
- Falko Traber from the Traber family of artists
- Vladimir Volshanski (born May 30, 1917 - † October 3, 1983)
- Karl Wallenda (born January 21, 1905 - † March 22, 1978)
- In June 2013, the American Nik Wallenda was the first person to cross the Grand Canyon unsecured on a 426 meter long wire rope in just under 23 minutes. His ancestors have been high wire artists for seven generations.
- Louis Weitzmann (February 21, 1881 - March 15, 1968)
- Mario Wittmann
- The original Munich Olympic Tower artists (Oskani high wire show), artist family since 1612
See also
- Slackline
- Achim von Arnim published the novella Angelika, the Genoese, and Cosmus, the rope jumper in 1812
literature
- Gisela and Dietmar Winkler (eds.): People between heaven and earth. From the life of famous high wire artists . Henschelverlag, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-362-00260-9 .
