Aerial dance: origins, training and the length of an act

From trapeze to silks

Aerial work was born in the circus of the nineteenth century. The flying trapeze is attributed to the Frenchman Jules Léotard, who presented his act in 1859 — he would give his name to the close-fitting garment acrobats still wear.

Aerial silks, by contrast, are far more recent: their appearance in the current form is generally placed in the 1990s, in the wake of the French circus schools and the research carried out around the nouveau cirque. It is a young discipline, which explains why it is still evolving quickly and why its vocabulary is not fixed.

Alongside silks sit the aerial hoop, the rope and the straps. These are distinct apparatus, each with its own movement and its own points of support: an artist who excels on the hoop is not automatically at ease on silks.

What training really demands

The higher circus schools train over roughly three years, often after one or two preparatory years. In practice, several years pass between the first classes and a solo act that can be presented to a paying audience.

The difficulty is not only a matter of movement. It is physiological: grip, shoulders and core are built slowly, and lost quickly. A professional aerialist trains all year round, including between contracts — it is a condition of safety as much as of quality.

The skin matters too, which you would not suspect from the auditorium: the fabric burns, marks, and imposes recovery time between rehearsals.

Why an act is short

Common practice in the profession places an aerial act at between four and seven minutes. This is not an arbitrary artistic convention: beyond that, grip strength runs out and the safety margin narrows.

The classic structure follows that constraint: a climb, a series of figures, a descent or a final drop that serves as the climax. The internal tempo of the act is dictated by what the body can hold while suspended.

For a long evening, two short appearances are better than a single stretched block. An artist who offers you twenty continuous minutes of aerial work is describing a feat of endurance, not a show.

What the venue must provide

Everything starts with the rigging point. It must be rated well beyond the weight of the artist: a dynamic drop, even a controlled one, multiplies the load taken by the structure. That approval falls to the venue or to a rigging professional — never to the artist alone, never to the client.

Next comes the available height, which determines the vocabulary that is possible: under a low ceiling, the long descents disappear and the act loses its effect.

Finally, allow time for rigging and adjustment. The installation, setting the height and the test run cannot be done in the quarter of an hour before the doors open.

• —A rigging point approved in writing, with its permissible load.
• —A clear floor area beneath the apparatus, free of tables and decorations.
• —A slot for rigging and testing before the audience arrives.