Acrobatics is the practice of performing physically unusual feats with one’s body. Principally the art of jumping, tumbling, and balancing, it often involves apparatus such as poles, one-wheel cycles, and flying trapezes.
The somersault is the fundamental tumbling act of acrobatics. Acrobatics, with a long recorded history and
many noted practitioners, has hovered on the fringes of
dance and the theater and provided an aesthetic alternative to sport.
History
The history of acrobatics is the history of its constant
marginalization—but also its constant presence. From
the early Egyptians to the European Middle Ages, acrobatic feats (particularly somersaults) were an integral,
if unofficial, element of funeral rites. Acrobatic stunts
have always seemed morally as well as physically dangerous. The ambiguous status of acrobatics may derive
from its forgotten symbolism.Whether walking a tightrope or performing a somersault, the acrobat is exposing himself to the possibility of serious injury and thus
defying death. The acrobat who survives the danger to
which he has willfully exposed himself embodies our
belief that immortality is possible.
By definition, an acrobat is one who “walks [Greek
bateo] on the extremity [Greek akra],” to mean on tiptoe, but that might also denote walking on one’s hands
(ancient Greek statuettes depict acrobats doing so). Either way, an acrobat walks in an unnatural and inherently unbalanced manner. Subsequently, the term “acrobat” came to designate a gymnast who walked on ropes
or otherwise performed while hanging from them.
“Acrobatics entered the modern languages only in
the limited sense of rope-walking. The subsequent
popularity of the word and its extension to the range of
physical activities traces largely to advances in the
techniques and technology of rope gymnastics. The invention of the flying trapeze (1859) and the exploits of
Blondin and Farini, who in 1859 and 1860 walked on
tightropes across the Niagara gorge, took acrobatics literally to new heights. The development of the great
traveling circuses and the rise of the music hall gave acrobatics both a venue and a new respectability. Acrobatic feats were performed purely for spectacular and
monetary purposes, offering the vicarious thrill of
watching performers gratuitously risk their lives.
Acrobats and dancers performed on the same stage,
and some acrobats rivaled dancers in celebrity, but acrobatics and dance were clearly distinct specialties. Acrobatics was also part of the commedia dell’arte, the
traditional Italian theater that required actors to perform stunts viewed as more appropriate to the circus.
But by the end of the 17th century the commedia dell’arte had been largely relegated to the fairground.
In early modern times acrobatics was the prerogative of the Italians, who tended to valorize acrobatics by
a combination of agility and equilibrium—the display
of mind over matter. Later it came to be an Eastern European specialty characterized by exhibitions of great
strength. The appearance in the West of the Peking
(Beijing) Circus in the 1970s profoundly altered Western perceptions of acrobatics; the Chinese stress lightness more than strength. Chinese acrobats introduce
humor into their acts, suggesting that acrobatics has
become so institutionalized in Asiatic culture that
there is nothing to fear.
Finally, the Cirque du Soleil (founded in the 1980s)
added to acrobatics a new notion of a narrative based
on elements drawn from the commedia dell’arte. The
Cirque’s shows are not simply a string of acts ordered
on principles of spectacle. Each act is part of a story;
the flow is mimetic as well as rhetorical and aesthetic.
The acrobatic spectacle involves the working out of human problems and relations as well as the increasing
emotional thrill of witnessing the marvelous and the
death-defying.
Rules and Play
Hovering as it does on the edge of sport, acrobatics has
traditions more than rules, and the winners are those
who best perform the most complex feats and survive
intact. The successful performance of acrobatic feats
requires considerable physical exertion, the painstaking acquisition of unusual athletic skills, and a high degree of muscular and psychological control. Acrobats
are less motivated by the creed of faster, higher,
stronger and by the quest for records than by the goal
of performing more inventively than others. Since the
ultimate purpose of acquiring acrobatic skills is not to
compete but to acquire even more spectacular skills,
acrobatics remains outside the realm of sport. The basic criteria by which we appreciate acrobatics—control, gracefulness, innovation—are not susceptible to
objective measurement.
Defying death was for a mortal an appropriately
symbolic part of ancient funeral ceremony, but doing
so for reasons of pure spectacle is an act of hubris. Acrobatics has thus traditionally been both applauded
and derided. Complete respectability has always eluded
acrobatics. Perhaps for that reason, the practitioners
have almost always been outsiders—or portrayed
themselves as such—to Western European culture.
Acrobatics cannot be conventionally competitive.
Yet some Olympic sports are judged more on aesthetic
than on quantified bases—gymnastics and figureskating—and so a form of acrobatics might someday
achieve Olympic status. Whether this happens or not,
acrobatics is certain to retain its appeal as an activity
both exciting and appealing to watch.
—JOHN MCCLELLAND