Washington Trapeze

As if balancing on the head or hands isn’t hard enough. As if trapeze isn’t a difficult discipline in its own right. No, some feel the need to combine the two!

This is known as Washington trapeze, a circus discipline invented in the 1800s by Kaye Washington. In this complex aerial act, the artist must balance him or herself on the head on the trapeze bar, thanks to a small “headrest” screwed down to the bar, and then launch into a series of balancing acts on the hands or feet, according to Canadian artist Marie-Josée Lévesque whose video is below.

Walking and Jumping On Your HandsWalking and Jumping On Your Hands on Amazon

And this one is an award winning Washington trapeze act by Elizabeth Axt

I first heard about these acts over at Gymnastics Coaching. And on that note you can see a guest post on the history of hand balancing I wrote for them.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing (on or off a trapeze),
Logan Christopher

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3 Responses to Washington Trapeze

  1. Dennis April 16, 2010 at 6:41 am #

    Logan,

    Loved these, Thanks!

    Dennis

  2. Kev Bass April 16, 2010 at 3:27 pm #

    Beyond excellent!

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  1. El florecimiento de un arte multifacético « M. Alurralde - May 10, 2011

    […] de los artistas, que incluían acrobacia combinada, malabares, un sorprendente número sobre un trapecio Washington y mucho clown, que aportó expresividad al simpático […]

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