Circus techniques

Circus Techniques is a comprehensive, varied guide for beginner and experienced performer alike. The book is divided into three sections, each describing progressively more advanced feats of juggling, equilibristics and vaulting. The skills may be learned by men, women or children, either for performance or --in the case of many of the balancing feats-as yoga exercises.Part One (Humble Beginnings) covers the basic and most elementary feats; i.e., balancing a cue stick, head-stand, rope jumping and skipping. Part Two(Pure Forms) advances the reader to the next degree of difficulty in circus acrobatics--toss juggling, stack equilibristics (rola-bola, stilts, unicycle) and tumble vaulting (pirouette, cartwheel, tiger leap). Part Three (Infinite Possibilities) is for the advanced gymnast- diabolo, knife throwing, trapeze, tightrope, trampoline.In each section, the techniques are lucidly explained, step by step, with more than 300 photographs. Descriptions of the physical comedy of such actors as Charlie Chaplin, W.C. Fields, Buster Keaton and Leonid Yengibarov enhance the text, which includes bibliographic and filmographic references. Here, too, the reader will find the historical achievements of performers such as Jules Leotard, Enrico Rastelli, Richard Risley and Will Rogers, and the theoretical discoveries of scientists such as Aristotle, Christian Doppler, Jean Foucault, Galileo, and Isaac Newton.Adding further to the usefulness of this book, interesting and illustrative comparisons are made with the physical talents of certain animals, such as seals, spotted skunks, and bears; English system measurements are given with metric conversions; and a glossary of thirty-three key circus props that will aid the reader in the building and installing of basic equipment.Hovey Burgess (author), a circus performer for many years, is a past president of the International Jugglers' Association. He is now Master Teacher of Circus at New York University.