While gymnastics as a sophisticated form of acrobatics has become an accepted
norm, the world over, there is another kind of acrobatics, very common in the Indian
streets, by a group of untrained professionals (normally a small family, which has been
performing the road show ancestrally with no formal training or coaching), which can
perhaps be termed as "Indian Acrobatics".
These performers while entertaining crowds on the road side also earn their livelihood
from such shows. Some of the common acts include tight rope walking (wherein a young
female will walk across barefoot on a stretch of thin rope fastened at two ends by cross
poles normally balancing a bamboo pole on her hands) and balancing a young child on a huge
pole, wherein the child reaches the top of the pole, which is balanced by the male member
either on his stomach, chest or head.
Sometimes trained monkeys and other animals are included as a part of the fare. |