rope-dancing
{{Short description|Acrobatic activity}}
File:Jacob Hall van Oost.jpg was a famous rope-dancer in London during the reign of King Charles II]]
Rope-dancing is the general art and act of performing on or with a rope.{{r|Strutt}}
There are a variety of forms and techniques which have been used throughout history. These include:
- Chinese jump rope – in which a circular rope is used to make patterns in a technique which resembles hopscotch and the cat's cradle
- Rope-sliding – in which the performer slides down a tight rope or cable somewhat like a modern zip line
- Skipping – in which the performer repeatedly jumps over a swinging rope
- Slackwire – in which the rope or wire is slack and so a swinging technique is needed
- Tightrope walking – in which the rope or wire is tight and a balancing technique is used
History
Rope-dancers were famous among ancient Greeks and Romans. The Greeks called a rope-dancer/rope-walker as schoenobates (σχοινοβάτης) and kalobates (καλοβάτης) and the Romans, funambulus. In Herculaneum there are a series of paintings representing rope-dancing. Germanicus and the emperor Galba even attempted to exhibit elephants walking on the rope.[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0062:id=funambulus-harpers Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898), Funambulus][https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Funambulus.html A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, John Murray, London, 1875, Funambulus]
In 165 BC, the first production of Terence's play Hecyra failed due to the rival attraction of rope-dancing, as recounted by the prologue.{{r|Sandbach}}
{{quote |
{{lang|la|Hecyra est huic nomen fabulae: haec cum data
Nova est novum intervenit vitium et calamitas,
Ut neque spectari neque cognosci potuerit.
Ita populus studio stupidus in funambulo animum occuparat.}}
Hecyra is the name of this Play;
when it was presented for the first time,
an unusual calamity interrupted it,
so that it could not be witnessed throughout;
the people gave their attention to some rope-dancing.}}
See also
References
{{reflist |refs=
{{citation |title=The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England |author=Joseph Strutt |editor=William Hone |publisher=Chatto & Windus |chapter=The Rope-Dance |pages=302–308}}
{{citation |title=How Terence's Hecyra Failed |publisher=Cambridge University Press |journal=The Classical Quarterly |volume=32 |number=1 |date=May 1982 |pages=134–135 |doi=10.1017/S0009838800022898 |author=Harry Sandbach}}
}}
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