You ’re at the circus . Not the old - fashioned Barnum & Bailey - dash genus Circus withlion tamersand " Ladies and gentleman’s gentleman ! " but the modern version popularize by Cirque de Soleil — darker , more exotic and very , very French .
The lights go down and a individual spotlight illuminate a man in the center mob . He ’s alone , except for a gravid aluminum tintinnabulation that he grips with one helping hand like an oversized Hawaiian dancing - basketball hoop . With exercise unconcern , he rolls the heavy ringing on its edge , causing it to trace a slow course around him .
Touching the ring again , he send off it into a slow wobble like a giant toppling coin . With perfect timing , the military personnel ill-treat in , out and around the spinning and careen tintinnabulation in a well - choreographed dance .
Then , with athletic precision , the man steps onto the rack with both metrical foot and grabs the edge with both manus . For a second , he resemble a trilled image ofLeonardo da Vinci ’s famous " Vitruvian Man . "
Using the roulette wheel ’s own momentum , he begins to execute increasingly difficult spins and inversion , work elegant somersaults and dizzying pirouettes . For the climax , he raises both metrical unit off the wheel and extends his body outwards , appearing to almost be carried away by the bicycle while somehow still command its every motion .
This dazzling spectacle is called the Cyr rack , orroue Cyrin French . The 33 - pound ( 15 - kilogram ) mob is appoint after its inventor , Daniel Cyr , a Canadian circus performing artist who showcased his unproblematic initiation in 2003 at the Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain ( " Circus of Tomorrow World Festival " ) in Paris . Cyr ( pronounce " seer " ) pull ahead the silver medal for a stunning routine on his homemade setup [ source : Cirque Eloize ] .
In small more than a decennary , the Cyr wheel has taken the circus world by violent storm . 100 of unskilled and professional acrobat , gymnasts and street performer worldwide now use the wheel in their turn , continually testing the limits of this versatile gadget .
History of Acrobatic Wheels
Like most great ideas , the Cyr wheel was n’t surcharge out of thin air . Instead , it was an idea that had exist for closely a century in various course before Daniel Cyr gave the simple alloy ring — also known as a mono wheel — its latest and greatest incarnation .
Acrobat and Cyr cycle performer Valérie Inertie has foregather awonderful account of the wheel and its predecessorson her web site .
Possibly the first modernistic performing artist to incorporate a mono wheel apparatus into her act was the forward-looking American dancer Doris Humphrey . Promotional photographs from a 1923 part called " Scherzo Waltz " show Humphrey with one leg enkindle high while her right hand balances a large metal ring incredibly similar in dimensions to the Cyr rack .
The next landmark happened in Germany in 1925 , when a former railroad worker named Otto Feick create the Rhönrad , also have sex as the German bike . Feick claims the inspiration for the Rhönrad — which is made from two parallel metal rings and resemble a big hamster wheel — come from a puerility experience of being roll down a hill in an iron - rimmed barrel .
The Rhönrad bask a flow of wild popularity between the two human beings war . Feick sold tens of thousands of the double wheels in Germany and demonstrated his innovation to appreciative crowds in London and New York City . The Rhönrad was taught in schooling gym classes and used to train pilots . For the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games , 120 Rhönrad athlete expose their head - over - heel talents in the opening night ceremonial occasion [ source : Inertie ] .
The first mass - producedmono steering wheel — the closest harbinger of the Cyr roulette wheel — was invented in post - war East Germany by Adalbert von Rekowski in the early fifties [ informant : Winkler ] . Called theEinreifen , the single - wheel apparatus had straps for attach your foot to the ring and a handlebar for grapple .
When Daniel Cyr began toy with mono roulette wheel designs in the 1990s , he would have sure as shooting known about the twofold - ringed German wheel , but probably not the Einreifen , which had long dwindled into obscurity . Cyr claims to have been inspired to create the Cyr wheel after seeing a large hula - hoop and a round wrought - iron coating single-foot [ reference : Inertie ] .
Cyr ’s first fashion model was mould from a single opus of roughsteel . In later iteration , he tack to aluminum for lightness and added a PVC covering for a still twisting . Eventually , he arrive up with a extremely portable pattern that could be let on down into five slice and reassemble easily with screws [ root : Inertie ] .
Next we ’ll chronicle the Cyr wheel ’s rise to fame through its best performer and openhanded show .
The Cyr Wheel Takes Off
Daniel Cyr , a alumnus of the National Circus School in Montreal , began his circus vocation as a " gratuitous run " specialist , an act in which the performer climb and symmetry atop a loose - standing metallic element ladder , sometimesjugglingfor tally difficulty [ root : National Circus School ] . In 1993 , Cyr co - establish Cirque Éloize — a variety show modeled on Cirque de Soleil — and began to experiment with design for the Cyr wheel .
Cyr performed with the bike in public for the first prison term in 1998 during a Cirque Éloize production calledExcentricus[source : Inertie ] . Over the next four years , he toured with the carnival throughout North America , Europe and Asia , performing his develop Cyr wheel act at every check . But it was n’t until his silver - medallion performance at the 2003 " Circus of Tomorrow " fete that the Cyr wheel became a bona fide circus art .
Before 2003 , Cyr had instruct a handful of fellow Cirque Éloize artists how to apply the wheel . After his triumphant performance in Paris , he was asked to mentor other performers , including Valérie Inertie — our helpful historian — who became the first Cyr wheel artist to do outdoors of the Cirque Éloize .
In 2005 , none other than the Cirque de Soleil come call , require Cyr to aid them develop a Cyr wheel act for their show " Corteo . " Cyr was also asked to perform his mono steering wheel turn as part of the opening night ceremonial of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin , Italy [ source : Cirque Éloize ] .
Cyr returned to his alma mater to train teacher at the National Circus School in Montreal how to instruct the next generation of performers how to utilize this various setup [ source : Inertie ] . The Internet also unfold the bicycle ’s popularity , with dozens of YouTube video recording establish performers , and website sellingprofessional - quality Cyr Wheelsfor less than $ 1,000 .
Enough chronicle , let ’s get spinning .
How to Use a Cyr Wheel
The beauty of using a Cyr wheel is that it can be as simple or complex as you wish . The apparatus is exactly the same for both beginners and professionals . With practice and patience , just about anyone can learn how to perform some basic Cyr wheel movement .
The first step is choosing the right size for your Cyr bike . Most Cyr roulette wheel producer recommend buying a wheel that ’s roughly 3 inches ( 8 cm ) taller than you [ seed : Coggs ] . It ’s important that you may endure comfortably inside the cycle and that you may easily reach the boundary of the wheel with your munition fully extended in the 10 and 2 o’clock lieu .
fag loose vesture . run short barefoot or fag air sock work well for indoors , but you probably need sneakers if you ’re practicing outside on pavement . You ’ll also need to position the wheel on a non - tricky open .
The headstone to getting started on the Cyr bike is find your balance . The basic Cyr wheel posture is to stand straight up , arms extended , and entertain the wheel slightly forward in front of your consistency . This " V " shape place thecenter of gravityright in front of your pectus [ source : Tribble ] .
Before you taste any spins , try simply stand on the wheel on the balls of your human foot and equilibrize for as long as you could . Once you feel well-heeled , judge some of these canonic starts and spin :
you could find television tutorials for these three canonical starts and more advanced moves on instructorSam Tribble ’s YouTube epithelial duct .
In an interesting hit of past tense and present , the Cyr roulette wheel has caught on with a outskirt sports subculture that ’s existed since the heyday of the German wheel . Learn more about " roulette wheel gymnastics " on the next page .
Wheel Gymnastics
think back the German bike , the two - ringed " hamster cycle " also know as the Rhönrad ? It turn out that the playful athletic twist first build by Otto Feick in the 1920s still has an ardent followers . start as betimes as 1960 , serious German wheel practitioner have been competing in title of so - called " bike gymnastics " [ source : Inertie ] .
The International Wheel Gymnastics Federation ( IRV ) was founded in 1995 to keep on the German custom of free-enterprise wheeled acrobatics . For the German Wheel , there are three free-enterprise acrobatic disciplines [ author : IRV ] :
IRV world patronage are contain every two years . For the 2011 event in Arnsberg , Germany , the Cyr wheel was include as a demonstration mutant . alternatively of have each competitor do a traditional choreographed routine , two Cyr Wheel athletes were pock head - to - caput in a Cyr Wheel " struggle " [ source : Inertie ] .
The 2013 Wheel Gymnastics World Championships in Chicago punctuate the first sentence that the Cyr Wheel was included as an official competitive study along with its own " Code of Points " [ generator : IRV ] . A panel of judge rates the competitors on both a technical program ( without medicine ) and a gratuitous programme ( with music ) . The Cyr Wheel gymnast are ask to perform sealed play to achieve maximum difficulty , and are judged on carrying out , trouble , and in the case of the free program , aesthetic impression [ source : IRV ] . The rule were updated and expanded for the June 2015 championship in Ligano , Italy [ generator : IRV ] .
Does roulette wheel gymnastics auditory sensation like fun ? There are more than 500 steering wheel variation clubs worldwide , includingnearly a dozen in the United States . striking theIRV member associationin your body politic to learn about opportunities to try both the German Wheel and Cyr Wheel . Or you could always go off and join the circus .
Lots More Information
I want to go to circus school . Researching this article , I had a chance to dig around the web site of theNational Circus Schoolin Montreal . you may actually get a college degree — amercement , sheepskin — in the " carnival arts . " That ’s awesome ! opine what it must be like to be a college pupil at circus school . Monday sunup is trapeze socio-economic class , follow by advanced juggle and an eve seminar on the clowning artistic production . reckon of the people you ’d meet at this situation ; marvellous weirdos from around the world ! I ca n’t believe they have n’t made a movie called " Circus School " about a misunderstood American kid who goes off to circus school , where he team up up with a ragtag work party of French Canadians to shock the world at the international bicycle gymnastics championship . Wait , I copyright that ! That ’s mine !
