9/2/2010

Circus Rigging
A Brief History of Aerial Arts

A Brief History of Aerial Arts

The origins of Aerial Arts go all the way back
to the origins of humankind itself. In this
presentation we will take a brief look at the
history of common Aerial Arts, including
Spanish Web, Aerial Straps, Roman Rings,
Trapeze, Lyra and Aerial Silks.
Many of todays modern aerial arts originated
as rituals in ancient cultures.

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History Bungee Jumping

The most well documented ancient ritual to be turned into an aerial
art is the Gkol ritual that is performed in the Pentecost Island in the
Pacific Archipelago of Vanuatu. As the story goes, a man called
Tamalie from the village Bunlap had a quarrel with his wife. She ran
away and climbed a Banyan tree where she wrapped her ankles
with liana vines, and waited for her husband. When Tamalie came
up to her, the woman jumped from the tree and so did her husband
who did not know what his wife had done. Tamalie did not survive
the fall, but his wife was uninjured. The men of Bunlap were very
impressed by this performance and they began to practice such
jumps.
This practice eventually transformed into a ritual for the yam
harvest and also as a coming of age ritual for young meant to prove
their manhood.
In 1979, a group of students from Oxford Universitys Dangerous
Sport Club viewed a film about the Pentecost Island vine jumpers,
and created a jump using modern materials. Bungee jumping was
born.

History Spanish Web

The origins of Spanish web are not nearly as well
documented as Bungee Jumping, but this art is
believed to be the oldest of the traditional circus aerial
arts.
Spanish Web can be traced back at least as far as the
Byzantine Empire. In 971AD, a log entry from a Roman
merchant ship described a game his sailors were
playing, climbing up a rope, tangling themselves in the
rope and then descending to the deck of the ship. It is
likely that this game was already well established when
this log entry was written.
Aerial Rope Acts were also known to have been part of
Roman Circuses. As sailors are known to have done a
lot of the rigging for these circuses, it is likely they also
performed these aerial rope acts.

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History Aerial Straps

Aerial straps first appeared in the early part of the Qing
Dynasty (1644 1911) in China.
During this period, circus and variety arts were so
popular that artists needed to constantly develop new
and innovative routines in order to attract an audience.
The early rigging for leather straps consisted of a
bamboo frame, in the shape of a tepee, from which
leather straps were hung. The artist would jump up and
grab the straps, in the same manner that one would
take hold of Roman rings. The straps would then be
wound around the wrists and a series of physical feats
would be executed at various speeds

History Roman Rings

Roman Rings were introduced to the world of
Gymnastics by Adolf Spie in the mid 1800s as a
swinging apparatus, which he called
Ringeschwebel, however the origins of the art
form are far more ancient.
Roman Rings are believed to have been around
since the times of the Roman Empire, and was a
popular game in Rome for a large part of history.
Indeed, it was only after Adolf Spie took a trip to
Rome that he introduced Rings to the world of
Gymnastics.

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History - Trapeze
Compared with some of the other aerial arts we have
talked about, Trapeze is a fairly young art.
The earliest known use of a trapeze (then known as a
Triangle because the cables met at the top) was for
women's ground stretching exercises in the 1820s.
In the summer of 1856, a young Frenchman named
Jules Leotard rigged a trapeze over the pool of his
parents gymnasium. Already being an accomplished
gymnast, Leotard came up with and performed all
manner of tricks. By the summer of 1859, Leotard had
added a second trapeze bar to his act, and was
performing what we now know as the flying trapeze.
Trapeze was a popular activity in gyms until the late
1930s, when it was phased out of gymnastics
programs for safety reasons.

History - Lyra
The first record we have been able to find of the
Lyra was an advertisement in an 1893 New York
Clipper featuring a lyric hoop" act, as performed
by someone called "Caedo".
A letter from the legendary rigger and equipment
builder Edward Van Wyck written in 1903 hinted
that this first aerial hoop may have been one of
the first aerial apparatus he built.
Horizontal lyras first appeared in Germany in
2005

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History Aerial Silks

Aerial Silks are easily the youngest of the aerial arts
First appearing in a French Circus School 1959. As a final
project, the school would assign student to present their
existing senior act in a completely new way. One web
student found a bolt of fabric in the local bizarre, and
presented her act completely on these fabrics.
History is from a newspaper report only the school has no
record of which student did this.
Practiced occasionally by others between 1959 and 1998.
Over that time, the tail from the knot used to secure the
fabric became a second leg of fabrics and , and modern
silks were born.
While silks have existed since that faithful spring day in
1959, it was not until 1998 when Isabelle Vaudelle and
Isabelle Chass performed separate silks acts in Quidam
that the act became well-known.