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.