On January 22, 2017, the Gerlings troupe was performing their highwire act for the 41st International Circus Festival of Monte-Carlo when one of the acrobats lost his balance and triggered the collapse of the nine-person pyramid to the ground. A cry of horror rippled through the audience. Instantly, videos of the accident were posted on Face Book. From a lateral angle we can see a man climbing to the shoulders of the last bearer standing on the cable and attempting a hand stand when an out of control oscillation causes him to lose his balance and tip over. Another video, from a frontal point of view in the axis of the wire, shows the staggered fall of the whole troupe like a house of cards. The balancing poles fan out as their tips reach the ring in succession. Besides a broken wrist, nobody was seriously injured in spite of the fact that there was no safety net.
This has not always been the case for this kind of act. In the annals of the circus, the celebrated Flying Wallendas suffered tragic casualties along successive generations of their iconic funambulist displays. The last one, Karl, born in 1905, fell one hundred feet to his death in Puerto Rico in 1978 when a sudden burst of wind knocked him off the wire. Other members of the family met similar tragic deaths. This acrobatic specialty is indeed a high risk one. It consists of walking on a cable stretched between two standing platforms at a sizeable height above the ground. A small error or an unexpected disruption can amplify the natural oscillation of the wire with catastrophic consequences. The Gerlings’ apparatus is set at five meters above the ground so that their last trick, which involves the cumulative height of four persons, has sufficient head room to proceed under a circus tent. Some other similar acts are performed at higher altitudes, notably in circus buildings, sport arenas, or outdoor.
Highwire acts come in various versions. Solo or duo acts are frequent. They feature running and dancing on the cable, rope skipping, riding a bicycle, jumping over an obstacle, balancing on a chair or standing on a partner’s shoulders. Often but not always, a long pole is used to secure a better management of gravity by extending the function of the arms in regulating the balance. This is the rule when the act is performed by an eight to twelve member team with the view of achieving more complex feats of balance. The Gerlings’ act includes twelve persons. They first perform in solo, duo, or trio a daring repertory that includes rope skipping, jumps over up to three bodies huddled on the wire, proceeding with someone standing in balance on the walker’s shoulders. But the number of individuals forming this troupe makes possible the challenging construction of so-called pyramids. This geometric metaphor retains the triangular shape of its geometrical model but is far from implementing its three-dimensional stability. It is more like a triangle perilously resting in balance on one of its edges. The Gerlings are famous for their nine-person pyramids.
The way funambulist pyramids are constructed is not easy to describe because their oddness defy discourse as well as gravity. Let us proceed step by step by describing acts of increasing difficulty. Two funambulists holding balancing poles support on their shoulders a rigid bar parallel to the cable on which they walk. As they are close to the platform from which they will progress ahead to reach the other side, another acrobat takes a position standing on the bar, also holding a balancing pole. We can call this the first-degree pyramid. Now, the same figure is repeated by three additional members of the group so that there are two first-degree pyramids on the wire. The two acrobats standing on the bars now add another bar which they support on their shoulders. A seventh person takes a position on this bar, thus forming a second-degree pyramid. Walking the length of the cable while keeping the construction stable would appear practically impossible, even with the help of the balancing poles. But this is not all: an eighth person proceeds to climb this construction to reach the shoulders of the one at the top, thus adding a fourth level at the tip of the pyramid.
It is obvious that crossing over from one end of the cable to the other demands absolutely perfect synchrony following the vocal signals of the leader. Each member must proceed as smoothly as possible while negotiating their own balance within their sphere of gravity. The slightest individual error is bound to amplify, and affect the whole construction with catastrophic consequences. More than a metaphor, the funambulist pyramid is an extreme demonstration of exemplary, indeed vital social harmony.
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