Little Known Facts About Acrobatics

Acrobatics is defined by Merriam-Webster as "a spectacular, showy, or startling performance or demonstration involving great agility or complexity." It's a broad term which covers many acts today, but it didn't always used to be that way. The following are some little known facts from word usage to world records.

Little known fact about the word acrobatics: The term acrobatics used to only be used when people were talking about the act of walking on a tightrope.

Little known Cirque du Soleil facts: Cirque du Soleil is one of the most popular acrobatics productions in the world. It was created in the early 80's by a Canadian named Guy Laliberte. Cirque du Soleil translates to "Circus of the Sun". The concept of the sun was incorporated in the name as a symbol of energy and youth. This contemporary circus differs from the traditional circus in that Cirque du Soleil uses no animals in the acts.

Q&A: Do you know how high a wire needs to be in order to call an act a "high-wire act"? Answer: It should be over twenty feet high.

Little known fact on tightrope walking: Adili Wuxor is known as the "prince of tightrope walking". Last July he obtained a Guinness record by tightrope walking for a little more than 198 hours over the Bird's Nest Olympic Stadium in Beijing, China.

More on China: You might be aware that acrobatics is highly respected in China. But did you know the following little fact? Around one hundred thousand people in China attend schools to learn acrobatics much like some students in America attend schools which focus on the arts.

Acrobatics Facts Sources:

Wikipedia.org, "Cirque du Soleil". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cirque_du_Soleil

ChinaDaily.com, "Adili Wuxor Sets New Tightrope-Walking Record". www.chinadaily.com