Tightrope walking
:
Tightrope is also the name of a
Clint Eastwood movie.:
Tightrope is also the name of a album by
Stephanie McIntoshTightrope walking is a spectacle activity usually performed for the amusement of an audience. It involves a performer who walks along a thin
wire or
rope usually from a great height. It is also called funambulism. The "tightrope walker" may sometimes use a pole to aid in balancing while walking the rope. For heightened drama, the walker may perform the feat without the precaution of a safety net. A tightrope walking act is common for
circuses.
Sometimes tightrope walking may be performed as a
publicity stunt.
*
Tightwire*
Highwire*
Slackwire*
Skywalk*
Freestyle slacklining (a.k.a. "rodeo slacklining") is the art and practice of cultivating balance on a piece of rope or webbing draped slack between two anchor points. Typically about 15 to 30 feet long and a couple feet off the ground in the center, this type of slackline provides a wide array of opportunities for both swinging and static maneuvers. A freestyle slackline has no tension in it, while both traditional slacklines and tightropes are tensioned. This slackness in the rope or webbing allows it to swing at large amplitudes and adds a different dynamic to the ancient art of tightrope walking.
*
Funambule (
French)
*
Blondin, a.k.a. Jean-François Gravelet, who wire-walked across
Niagara Falls many times
*
Phillippe Petit who walked between the towers of the former
World Trade Center in
New York City*
Jade Kindar-Martin and
Didier Pasquette, highwire walkers, most notable for their world-record setting
skywalk over the
River Thames in
London*the
Flying Wallendas, famous for their seven- and eight-person pyramid wire-walks
*
Stephen Peer, circa 1800's Niagara Falls
