Tightrope walkers

Tightrope walkers started with the Greeks, but became more common among the Romans. A distinction was Funambuli, based on strong ropes, and Neurobatae that danced on gut strings. The latter were called Aerobatae (”Air Dancers”), because they seemed to dance in the thinness of the strings from a distance in the open air. Acrobat feats are depicted on vases and wall paintings.

On some coins of Cyzicus they are even shown climbing the Turmseils. Later, from India and Egypt acrobats came from Constantinople. In the Middle Ages there were known Indians, Persians and oriental jugglers of this kind. The tightrope walker Arcangelo Tuccaro wrote an illustrated essay on his art (Paris, 1599).

A high-wire act is called an acrobatic performance by acrobats on a tightrope. Before the invention of wire ropes in 1834, the acrobatics were exerted on hemp ropes.

The slack hangs loosely between two fixed points. On this are presented different balancing tricks. Slight lateral oscillating movements keep the artist in equilibrium. The balance point of the artists is at waist level. Besides running and turning on the slack, there are many different tricks such as uni-cycling, juggling, hand and headstand, wings and Rolla-Rolla.

Tanzseil (Steifseil)

The Tanzseil is attached to the slack as well at a height of up to 4m from two fixed points. Unlike the latter it is stretched with a pulling force up to 40kN. It’s called Steifseil directly translated from the English “tight rope”. The balance point of the artists is at shoulder height, which gives them a very upright appearance.

A special feature of the dance is rope suspension, which is notably used by French artists. This facilitates the presentation of dance with jumps, spins and step sequences. The pitches in this discipline are about 5m. It is used for freestanding or guyed ropes apparatus. Seitenabspanungen like the tightrope are unusual.

Current tightrope

A high-wire, is like a heavily Tanzseil tightrope. The tightrope is, as the name implies, used at high altitudes. In the circus it has a height of 8-10 meters, outdoors, it can be over a hundred meters up. Runners typically use a high-wire balancing pole, between 5 and 10m long and up to 15kg which is hard to shift the balance point downward. Some artists, especially from America and Spain, also work freehand, but usually on a relatively short rope.

With the usual outdoor levels and the cable lengths of up to several hundred meters, it is nearly impossible without a balancing pole to withstand wind and vibrations. Long ropes are secured at regular intervals with lateral bracing (Cavaletti) against excessive decay.

Tricks on the rope

(Trick is the term for an artistic individual feat, not to be confused with “trick” for the purposes of deception.) Sometimes a high-wire with the ascent is begun on the stay cables, which is even more difficult. One of the oldest tricks probably is to walk on stilts or baskets on your feet whilst blindfolded.

After that bike unicycles and motorcycles were also used on the high wire. In addition another variation is the chief man stands on the shoulders or the head upright or in a handstand connected by a shoulder pole, on which stands a head man as demonstrated by the Wallenda troupe in 1947. Particularly daring tricks are movements without balancing on the tightrope, such as skipping a seated partner, skipping, epee fencing, riding bareback on the unicycle (Ultimate wheel), and a backflip.