Acrobatic

2008-04-29T00:17:00.000-07:00

Acrobatics

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirected from

Acrobatic)

Jump to: navigation,
search

Acrobatics (from

Greek Akros, high and bat, walking) is
one of the

performing arts, and is also practiced as a

sport. Acrobatics involves difficult feats of
balance, agility and coordination. Nearly any
performance or sport which involves full-body
activity—especially in short, highly controlled bursts
of activity—can be considered acrobatics. Typical
examples are, first and foremost, all the subdivisions
of

gymnastics and

trapeze work, but specialized activities like

ballet and

diving could also be included. In a narrow sense,
the term "acrobatics" refers to "acrobatic gymnastics,"
a specialized subdivision of gymnastics.

[hide]

1
History
- 1.1
  Western history
- 1.2
  Eastern history

2
Education

3
Acrobatic Gymnastics

4
See also

5
References

6
External links

[edit]
History

Acrobats in a

Paris suburb, by

Viktor Vasnetsov (1877)

[edit]
Western history

Acrobatic traditions are found in many cultures. In
the

West,

Minoan art from circa

2000 BC contains depictions of acrobatic feats on
the backs of bulls, which may have been a

religious ritual.^[1]

Korean acrobat walking,

Jultagi

The

court displays of the

European

Middle Ages would often involve acrobatic
performances along with

song,

juggling and other activities.

Though initially the term applied to tight-rope
walking, in the

19th century, a form of performance art, including

circus acts began to use the term as well. In the
late 19th century, tumbling and other
acrobatic/gymnastic activities became a competitive
sport in Europe.

Acrobatics in Western history have become a key
subject for fine art. An excellent example is
Acrobats at the Cirque Fernando (Francisca and Angelina
Wartenberg) by

Impressionist

Pierre-Auguste Renoir which depicts two German
acrobatic sisters. The painting resides at the

Art Institute of Chicago.

[edit]
Eastern history

In

China, acrobatics (“Hundred Plays”) have been a part
of the culture since the

Western Han Dynasty, over 2500 years ago. Acrobatics
were part of village harvest

festivals.^[2]

During the

Tang Dynasty, acrobatics saw much the same sort of
development as European acrobatics saw during the Middle
Ages with court displays during the

7th through

10th century dominating the practice.^[3]
Today the performance art remains to be one of the most
important performances offered within

Chinese variety art, mostly referred to in the west
as "Chinese Circus".

[edit]
Education

Traditionally, acrobatic skills were kept within
families and passed from parents to children. This is
still true especially among family

circus groups nowadays. However, most acrobats are
now taught by larger scale education systems, as
circuses are now made up of many more professionals than
they used to be. Many schools specializing in acrobatics
art are providing a constant resource of acrobatic
artists. Some of these schools are independently
operated, and some are supported and affiliated to
circuses.

Circus

2008-04-29T00:16:00.001-07:00

Circus

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation,
search

For other uses, see

Circus (disambiguation).

The Big Top of

Billy Smart's Circus

Cambridge 2004.

A circus is most commonly a traveling company
of performers that may include

acrobats,

clowns, trained animals, trapeze acts,

hoopers, tightrope walkers,

jugglers, unicyclists and other stunt-oriented
artists. The word also describes the performance that
they give, which is usually a series of acts that are
choreographed to music. A circus is held in an oval or
circular arena with tiered seating around its edge; in
the case of traveling circuses this location is most
often a large

tent called the

big top.

[hide]

1
History of the circus
- 1.1
  Development of the
  circus
- 1.2
  Contemporary
  circus

2
The circus performance
- 2.1
  Circus acts
- 2.2
  Animal acts

3
Circus music, films
and plays

4
Circus Buildings

5
See also

6
Notes

7
References

8
External links

[edit]
History of the circus

In Ancient Rome the circus was a building for the
exhibition of horse and chariot races, equestrian shows,
staged battles, displays featuring trained animals,
jugglers, and acrobats. The circus of Rome is thought to
have been influenced by the Greeks, with chariot racing
and the exhibition of animals as traditional
attractions. The Roman circus consisted of tiers of
seats running parallel with the sides of the course, and
forming a crescent around one of the ends. The lower
seats were reserved for persons of rank; there were also
various state boxes, eg. for the giver of the games and
his friends. In Ancient Rome the circus was the only
public spectacle at which men and women were not
separated.

The first circus in Rome was the

Circus Maximus, in the valley between the Palatine
and Aventine hills. Next in importance to the Circus
Maximus in Rome was the

Circus Flaminius, the

Circus Neronis, from the notoriety which it obtained
through the Circensian pleasures of Nero. A fourth, the

Circus of Maxentius, was constructed by

Maxentius; the ruins of this circus have enabled
archaeologists to reconstruct the Roman circus.

Following the fall of Rome, Europe lacked a large and
animal rich circus. Itinerant showmen traveled the fair
grounds of Europe. Animal trainers and performers are
thought to have exploited the nostalgia for the Roman
circus, traveling between towns and performing at local
fairs. Another possible link between the Roman and
modern circus could have been bands of

Gypsies who appeared in Europe in the 14th century
and in Britain from the 15th century bringing with them
circus skills and trained animals.^{[citation

needed]}

In China's

Eastern Han Dynasty scholar

Zhang Heng was one of the first to describe
acrobatic theme shows in the royal palaces in his
writing "Ode to the Western Capital". A grand acrobatic
show was held by

Emperor Wu of Han in 108 BC for foreign guests^[1].
Most western text describe the circus as a "Chinese
Circus". The

Far East generally see it as a separate performance
art called

Chinese variety art, and is not believed to be a
direct predecessor to "Western Circus" despite
many stunts and performances being similar.

[edit]
Development of the circus

Lion tamer, in lithograph by Gibson & Co.,
1873.

The modern concept of a circus as a circular arena
surrounded by tiers of seats, for the exhibition of
equestrian, acrobatic, and other performances seems to
have existed since the late 18th century.^[2]
The popularity of the circus in

England may be traced to that held by

Philip Astley in London, the first performance of
his circus is said to have been held on

January 9,

1768. One of Astley's major contributions to the
circus was bringing trick horse riding into a ring,
though Astley referred to it as the Circle. Later, to
suit equestrian acts moving from one circus to another,
the diameter of the circus ring was set at 42 feet (13
m), which is the size ring needed for horses to circle
comfortably at full gallop. Astley never called his
performances a 'circus'; that title was thought up by
his rival John Hughes, who set up his Royal Circus a
short distance from Astley's 'Amphitheatre of Equestrian
Arts' in Lambeth, London. Astley was followed by

Andrew Ducrow, whose feats of horsemanship had much
to do with establishing the traditions of the circus,
which were perpetuated by Henglers and Sangers
celebrated shows in a later generation. In England
circuses were often held in purpose built buildings in
large cities, such as the

London Hippodrome of the circus, the menagerie and the variety theatre,
where wild animals such as lions and elephants from time
to time appeared in the ring, and where convulsions of
nature such as floods, earthquakes and volcanic
eruptions have been produced with an extraordinary
wealth of realistic display.

Trapezee artists, in lithograph by
Calvert Litho. Co., 1890.

Antonio Franconi, the founder of the French circus,
is credited by many to be a co-creator of the modern
circus, along with Philip Astley.

The first circus building in the United States opened
in 1793 in

Philadelphia with a performance by

John Bill Ricketts^[3].

George Washington attended a performance there later
that season^[4].
In the Americas of the first two decades of the 19th
century, The

Circus of Pepin and Breschard toured from Montreal
to Havana, building circus theatres in many of the
cities they visited. Later the establishments of Purdy,
Welch & Co., and of van Amburgh gave a wider popularity
to the circus in the

United States. In 1825

Joshuah Purdy Brown was the first circus owner to
use a large canvas tent for the circus performance.
Circus pioneer

Dan Rice was probably the most famous circus and
clown pre-Civil War, popularizing such expressions as
"The One-Horse Show" and "Hey,
Rube!". The American circus was revolutionized by

P. T. Barnum and

William Cameron Coup, who launched

P. T. Barnum's Museum, Menagerie & Circus, a
travelling combination animal and human oddities, the
exhibition of humans as a

freak show or

sideshow was thus an American invention. Coup was
also the first circus entrepreneur to use

circus trains to transport the circus from town to
town; a practice that continues today and introduced the
first multiple ringed circuses.

In 1840 the equestrian

Thomas Cooke returned to England from the United
States, bringing with him a circus tent. Three important
circus innovators were Italian

Giuseppe Chiarini, and Frenchmen

Louis Soullier and

Jacques Tourniaire, whose early travelling circuses
introduced the circus to Latin America, Australia, South
East Asia, China, India, South Africa and Russia.
Soullier was the first circus owner to introduce Chinese
acrobatics to the European circus when he returned from
his travels in 1866 and Tourniaire was the first to
introduce the performing art to Ranga where it became
extremely popular. Following Barnum's death his circus
merged with that of

James Anthony Bailey, and travelled to Europe as
Barnum & Bailey "Greatest Show On Earth" where it toured
from 1897 to 1902, impressing other circus owners with
its large scale, its touring techniques including the
tent and circus train and the combination of circus
acts, zoological exhibition and the freak show. This
format was adopted by European circuses at the turn of
the 20th century.

The influence of the American circus brought about a
considerable change in the character of the modern
circus. In arenas too large for speech to be easily
audible, the traditional comic dialog of the clown
assumed a less prominent place than formerly, while the
vastly increased wealth of stage properties relegated to
the background the old-fashioned equestrian feats, which
were replaced by more ambitious acrobatic performances,
and by exhibitions of skill, strength and daring,
requiring the employment of immense numbers of
performers and often of complicated and expensive
machinery. In 1919, Lenin, head of the USSR, expressed a
wish for the circus to become 'the people's art-form',
given facilities and status on a par with theatre, opera
and ballet. The USSR nationalized the Soviet circuses.
When the Moscow State Circus company began international
tours in the 1950's, its levels of originality and
artistic skill were widely applauded, and the high
standard of the Russian State circus continues to this
day.

The International Circus Congress held in Madrid over
the 4th to 6th October 1988 issued the following
statement: (1) That each country be asked to recognize
that the circus arts are a valuable cultural
manifestation and form an essential part of the culture
and history of humanity. (2) That the circus is an
entertainment worthy of protection in each country, to
conserve the circus arts and the way of life of its
performers. (3)That the real identity and quality of the
circus should be defended in order to avoid its
degradation. (4) That the setting up of circus schools
be encouraged and that places there be available to
students from other countries. (5) That animals are an
integral part of the circus.

Full details of the above Congress meeting appeared
in the Circus Fans of Great Britain 'King Pole' Magazine
December 1988 issue. Personally I would agree with the
above plus that the two words 'circus' and 'clown'
should be totally safeguarded to mean clean, wholesome
family entertainment and to curtail efforts that (quote)
degrade them. 14th April 2008 - Tommy Sandow

[edit]
Contemporary circus

Cirque du Soleil performing

Dralion in

Vienna, 2004

In the 1960s and 1970s, the circus began to lose
popularity as people became more interested in
alternative forms of entertainment. Some circuses have
stayed afloat by merging with other circus companies.
There are numerous circuses that maintain a mix of
animal and human performers, these include

Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus, the

Moscow State Circus, Circus Krone[1]
from Munich,

Circus Royale from Australia and the

Big Apple Circus.

Circus Circus is a

Las Vegas circus themed casino and the largest
permanent big top in the world also presents human and
animal performances.

Cirque nouveau / New Circus is a performing arts
movement that developed in the 1970s, simultaneously in

France,

Australia the West Coast of the U.S. and the U.K .
There are no animals used in this type of circus and
influences are drawn as much from contemporary culture
as from circus history. Examples include

Circus Oz forged in

Australia in 1977 from SoapBox Circus and New
Circus, both founded in the early 70's, The Pickle
Family Circus[2]
founded in

San Francisco in 1975, and more recently

Circus Burlesque from the U.K in 1980 and Nofitstate
circus[3]
in 1984 from

Wales,

Cirque du Soleil founded in

Quebec, Canada in 1984,

Archaos in 1986,

Club Swing in 1994, through to more recent examples
such as

Teatro ZinZanni, founded in Seattle in 1998,

Quebec's

Cirque Éloize, Les 7 Doigts de la Main, also know as
The 7 Fingers

[4], and the West African (French
Guinea - Guinée) Circus Baobab[5]
in the late 90's. The form includes other circus troupes
such as the

Le Cirque Imaginaire, later renamed

Le Cirque Invisible both founded and directed by

Victoria Chaplin, granddaughter of

Charlie Chaplin, the

Tiger Lillies,

Circus Monoxide, Acrobat, Dislocate[6],
RANGA Circus[7]
(now

CIRCA), and Throwdown, while

The Jim Rose Circus and

The Happy Sideshow are both interesting takes on the

sideshow.

Swedish nouveau circus company

Cirkus Cirkör was founded 1995. U.S. Company PURE
Cirkus

[8] under the Genre of Cirque Noir, was founded in
2004, and in

Northern England, (United Kingdom), combining punk,
rap, dance music, comedy, and daring stunts,

Skewed Circus delivers "pop-circus" genre
entertainment to young urban audiences who have not had
the opportunity to visit traditional circuses.

Circuses from

China, drawing on Chinese

traditions of

acrobatics, like the

Chinese State Circus are also popular touring acts.

The

International Circus Festival of Monaco [9]
has been held in

Monte Carlo since 1974 and was the first of many
international awards for circus performers.

[edit]

Fire breatherss and external, as well as poisoning in the
pursuit of their art.

Female

animal trainer and leopard. Human
performers in

Big Cat acts such as these are often
referred to by the misnomer "Lion
tamers".

Animal rights activists allege that
these acts involve

cruel training methods.

A traditional circus performance is led by a

ringmaster who has a role similar to a

Master of Ceremonies. The ringmaster presents
performers, speaks to the audience, and generally keeps
the show moving. The activity of the circus takes place
within a ring; large circuses may have multiple rings,
like the six ringed Moscow State Circus. A circus
traditionally has its own band.

[edit]
Circus acts

Main article:

Circus skills

Common acts include a variety of

acrobatics and

gymnastics including

tightrope walking, aerial acts such as

trapeze and

cradle, and a variety of floor routines.

Juggling is also a common act in circuses; the
combination of juggling and gymnastics is called

equilibristics and include acts like

plate spinning or the

rolling globe.

Clowns are common to most circuses and are typically
skilled in many circus acts; "clowns getting into the
act" is a very familiar theme in any circus. Famous
circus clowns have included

Austin Miles, the

Fratellini Family,

Emmett Kelly,

Grock and

Bill Irwin.

Daredevil

stunt acts and

sideshow acts are also parts of some circus acts,
these activities may include

human cannonball,

chapeaugraphy,

fire eating,

breathing and

dancing,

knife throwing,

magic shows,

sword swallowing or

strongman. Famous sideshow performers include

Zip the Pinhead and

The Doll Family. A popular sideshow attraction from
the early 19th century was the

flea circus, where fleas were attached to props and
viewed through a

Fresnel lens.

[edit]
Animal acts

A variety of animals have historically been used in
acts. While the types of animals used vary from circus
to circus,

big cats,

elephants,

horses,

birds,

sea lions and domestic animals are the most common.

The earliest involvement in animals in circus was
just the display of exotic creatures. As far back as the
early eighteenth century, exotic animals were
transported to North America for display, and menageries
were a popular form of entertainment.^[5]
The first true animals acts in the circus were
equestrian acts. Soon elephants and big cats were
displayed as well. Isaac A. Van Amburgh entered a cage
with several big cats in 1833, and is generally
considered to be the first wild animal trainer in circus
history.^[6]

Mabel Stark was a famous female tiger-tamer.

Recently the use of animals in the circus has been a
matter for controversy, as animal-welfare groups have
documented multiple instances of

animal cruelty, used in the training of performing
animals. Elephants in particular have been of some
problem recently as is demonstrated by "Tyke" (1974 –

August 20,

1994)^[7]
a circus elephant who on

August 20,

1994 in

Honolulu, Hawaii, killed her trainer,

Allen Campbell, and mauled her groomer, Dallas
Beckwith causing severe injuries during a Circus
International performance before hundreds of horrified
spectators at the

Neal Blaisdell Center. Tyke then bolted from the
arena and ran through downtown streets of

Kakaako for more than thirty minutes. Police fired
86 shots at Tyke who eventually collapsed from the
wounds and died.

In 1998 in the UK, The Circus Animal Working Party,
chaired by MP Roger Gale, studied animal conditions and
treatment in UK circuses. All members of this Party
agreed that a change in the law was needed to protect
circus animals. Mr Gale, Conservative MP for Thanet
North, told the BBC, "It's undignified and the
conditions under which they are kept are woefully
inadequate - the cages are too small, the environments
they live in are not suitable and many of us believe the
time as come for that practice to end." Also cited in
the study were concerns about boredom and stress, as
well as noting that an independent study by a member of
the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit at Oxford
University "found no evidence that circuses contribute
to education or conservation."
^[8]

Sweden, Austria, Costa Rica, India, Finland, and
Singapore have restricted the use of animals in
entertainment. The UK and Scottish Parliaments have
committed to ban certain wild animals in travelling
circuses. In response to a growing unease from the
public about the use of animals in entertainment, the
formation of animal free circuses have begun cropping up
around the globe, and animal free circuses have begun to
be more wide-spread.^[9].

[edit]
Circus music, films and plays

[edit]
Circus Buildings

In some towns, there are circus buildings. The best
known are

Circus Krone Building in

Munich

Moscow Circus on Tsvetnoy Boulevard in

Moscow

Shanghai Circus World in

Shanghai

Cirque du Soleil in

Las Vegas, Nevada

Cirque d'Hiver, Paris

Budapest Circuss

Blackpool Tower Circus

Hippodrome Circus,

Great Yarmouth

In other countries, purpose-built circus buildings
still exist which are no longer used as circuses, or are
used for circus only occasionally among a wider
programme of events; for example, the Circus Schumann in
Copenhagen, Denmark or

Cirkus in Stockholm, Sweden.

Source From Wikipedia.

Circus & Acrobatic

Acrobatic

Acrobatics

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Contents

[edit]
History

[edit]
Western history

[edit]
Eastern history

[edit]
Education

Circus

Circus

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Contents

[edit]
History of the circus

[edit]
Development of the circus

[edit]
Contemporary circus

[edit]

[edit]
Circus acts

[edit]
Animal acts

[edit]
Circus music, films and plays

[edit]
Circus Buildings

Circus & Acrobatic

Acrobatic

Acrobatics

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Western history

[edit] Eastern history

[edit] Education

Circus

Circus

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Contents

[edit] History of the circus

[edit] Development of the circus

[edit] Contemporary circus

[edit]

[edit] Circus acts

[edit] Animal acts

[edit] Circus music, films and plays

[edit] Circus Buildings

[edit]
History

[edit]
Western history

[edit]
Eastern history

[edit]
Education

[edit]
History of the circus

[edit]
Development of the circus

[edit]
Contemporary circus

[edit]
Circus acts

[edit]
Animal acts

[edit]
Circus music, films and plays

[edit]
Circus Buildings