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penpusherYou’ve seen them, at sporting events or in a parade, at a store opening or a theme park. Stilt walkers! They stand tall among the crowd and are definitely a festive part of any event.
At Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College, stilt walking was part of the curriculum, as the Circus typically has a set of stilt walkers as part of the Opening and/or Closing Spec (short for “spectacle” – when all performers are greeting the crowds on the arena floor).
I’m not completely sure how I got to be considered as a stilt walker. I guess I showed some propensity for it early, maybe some fearlessness and they obviously wanted someone who could do the job. I was enlisted to do a stilt walk in our graduation exercise.
Now, there are two kinds of stilts. There are “painter’s stilts,” which mimic your leg and typically don’t extend much beyond the length of an average leg: usually about 3 or possibly 4 feet at most. They have a flat, foot-sized landing plate and behave like a simple leg extension when you step.
Then, there are standard stilts, the ones I was using. Standard stilts are usually a solid pole, sometimes still made from wood but more likely aluminum, and usually with some rubber traction at the tip for a firm and slip free grip of the walking surface. The Guinness World Record for highest stilts walked on is 53 feet, 10 inches, but nobody actually walked any distance on those stilts. I’m referring to stilts you could walk around the entirety of hippodrome track that surrounds the three rings, a distance of about 300 feet in total.
Walking on standard stilts does require practice and skill, and you need to know what you’re doing when you’re on them. This, as opposed to the painter’s stilts, which, as the name implies, were designed for people to paint higher walls without scaffolding, and really aren’t that challenging, once you get used to them.
Typically, In a Ringling Show, you have stilt walkers on 5 foot stilts, 6 foot stilts, 8 foot stilts and possibly 11 foot stilts, if someone on the show was capable of it. They walk together, at an appropriate distance, in ascending order, and wave at the crowd as they pass around, a great visual!
Also, for safety, there is a spotter, a person walking with each stilt walker so that in case a problem occurs, they can be there to catch the stilt walker and limit the damage/injury.
There is a basic rule when it comes to stilt walking. If you’re going to fall, fall forward. That’s useful for a couple of reasons. First, you can use your arms as a way of helping break your fall, something that would not be available falling backwards. Second, head protection is a lot more secure falling forward. Falling from a height and hitting the back of your cranium on the floor is not advised.
There were going to be two separate stilt walks for graduation. The one I was involved with was a specialty stilt walk with each walker dressed up like a specific profession. I was a brick layer, and my stilts were covered with rubberized bricks, making it look like I was walking on two chimneys. This also made the stilts much heavier and I had to sweep my legs carefully to make sure I didn’t fall as I stepped.
The other walk was just a standard walk around.
The stilt trainers were rehearsing the other group’s walk and I was in the costume shop, backstage of the arena. Suddenly we heard some terrible noises. Something had happened, and we knew it was bad because we were told not to leave the area we were in.
It was later that day that the word came back. There was a stilt accident. One walker fell and bumped into the next walker who also fell into the previous walker. Three students were rushed to the hospital because of the mishap, two injured seriously.
How the accident occurred I still don’t know, or why the walkers were placed close enough to reach each other on a fall is another mystery. But it made the rest of the walkers wonder, could that happen to us?
The final week of rehearsal before our graduation performance and I was feeling pretty good about my stilt work. I did a perfect walk around and got backstage. For some reason, there was a heavy duty extension cord stretched across the track that I didn’t know was there.
“Watch out for the cord,” my stilt instructor told me...
After I had already started to take my step.
I shortened my stride from the sweeping steps I had taken all the way around the track and then lost balance. I hopped three times on my left leg, trying to get it back, but I could not. I fell forward, and the instructor caught me before I hit the floor. But I jammed my knee in the process.
On Graduation Night, with producer Kenneth Feld and all of the Top Brass of Ringling in attendance, And with everyone’s families watching from the grandstands, I dreaded the stilt section of the evening. Strapping my bricks on, I wondered if my knee would start aching or if I’d have some other problem.
“Take your places!”
As I stood up, I nearly fell right to the ground, but suddenly, what felt like a pair of hands grabbed under my armpits and lifted me up straight and tall! I walked around the arena with no problems, and came back.
I never told any of my classmates about that moment, and even though I wasn’t given a contract to be in the circus, I was sure I had a guardian angel clown watching out for me. And, based on my career, that seems to have been true.
//
This piece was written for LJ Idol using the prompt - Sweep the Leg.
At Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College, stilt walking was part of the curriculum, as the Circus typically has a set of stilt walkers as part of the Opening and/or Closing Spec (short for “spectacle” – when all performers are greeting the crowds on the arena floor).
I’m not completely sure how I got to be considered as a stilt walker. I guess I showed some propensity for it early, maybe some fearlessness and they obviously wanted someone who could do the job. I was enlisted to do a stilt walk in our graduation exercise.
Now, there are two kinds of stilts. There are “painter’s stilts,” which mimic your leg and typically don’t extend much beyond the length of an average leg: usually about 3 or possibly 4 feet at most. They have a flat, foot-sized landing plate and behave like a simple leg extension when you step.
Then, there are standard stilts, the ones I was using. Standard stilts are usually a solid pole, sometimes still made from wood but more likely aluminum, and usually with some rubber traction at the tip for a firm and slip free grip of the walking surface. The Guinness World Record for highest stilts walked on is 53 feet, 10 inches, but nobody actually walked any distance on those stilts. I’m referring to stilts you could walk around the entirety of hippodrome track that surrounds the three rings, a distance of about 300 feet in total.
Walking on standard stilts does require practice and skill, and you need to know what you’re doing when you’re on them. This, as opposed to the painter’s stilts, which, as the name implies, were designed for people to paint higher walls without scaffolding, and really aren’t that challenging, once you get used to them.
Typically, In a Ringling Show, you have stilt walkers on 5 foot stilts, 6 foot stilts, 8 foot stilts and possibly 11 foot stilts, if someone on the show was capable of it. They walk together, at an appropriate distance, in ascending order, and wave at the crowd as they pass around, a great visual!
Also, for safety, there is a spotter, a person walking with each stilt walker so that in case a problem occurs, they can be there to catch the stilt walker and limit the damage/injury.
There is a basic rule when it comes to stilt walking. If you’re going to fall, fall forward. That’s useful for a couple of reasons. First, you can use your arms as a way of helping break your fall, something that would not be available falling backwards. Second, head protection is a lot more secure falling forward. Falling from a height and hitting the back of your cranium on the floor is not advised.
There were going to be two separate stilt walks for graduation. The one I was involved with was a specialty stilt walk with each walker dressed up like a specific profession. I was a brick layer, and my stilts were covered with rubberized bricks, making it look like I was walking on two chimneys. This also made the stilts much heavier and I had to sweep my legs carefully to make sure I didn’t fall as I stepped.
The other walk was just a standard walk around.
The stilt trainers were rehearsing the other group’s walk and I was in the costume shop, backstage of the arena. Suddenly we heard some terrible noises. Something had happened, and we knew it was bad because we were told not to leave the area we were in.
It was later that day that the word came back. There was a stilt accident. One walker fell and bumped into the next walker who also fell into the previous walker. Three students were rushed to the hospital because of the mishap, two injured seriously.
How the accident occurred I still don’t know, or why the walkers were placed close enough to reach each other on a fall is another mystery. But it made the rest of the walkers wonder, could that happen to us?
The final week of rehearsal before our graduation performance and I was feeling pretty good about my stilt work. I did a perfect walk around and got backstage. For some reason, there was a heavy duty extension cord stretched across the track that I didn’t know was there.
“Watch out for the cord,” my stilt instructor told me...
After I had already started to take my step.
I shortened my stride from the sweeping steps I had taken all the way around the track and then lost balance. I hopped three times on my left leg, trying to get it back, but I could not. I fell forward, and the instructor caught me before I hit the floor. But I jammed my knee in the process.
On Graduation Night, with producer Kenneth Feld and all of the Top Brass of Ringling in attendance, And with everyone’s families watching from the grandstands, I dreaded the stilt section of the evening. Strapping my bricks on, I wondered if my knee would start aching or if I’d have some other problem.
“Take your places!”
As I stood up, I nearly fell right to the ground, but suddenly, what felt like a pair of hands grabbed under my armpits and lifted me up straight and tall! I walked around the arena with no problems, and came back.
I never told any of my classmates about that moment, and even though I wasn’t given a contract to be in the circus, I was sure I had a guardian angel clown watching out for me. And, based on my career, that seems to have been true.
//
This piece was written for LJ Idol using the prompt - Sweep the Leg.
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no subject
Date: 2014-09-22 03:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-09-22 03:31 am (UTC)Cool story.
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Date: 2014-09-22 11:11 am (UTC)This was neat, though. I figured the strategy would be "fall forward," because of the reasons you listed. :)
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Date: 2014-09-22 03:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-09-22 03:38 pm (UTC)AW
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Date: 2014-09-22 04:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-09-22 05:55 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2014-09-23 09:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-09-24 05:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-09-24 10:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-09-25 01:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-09-25 01:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-09-25 07:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-09-25 10:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-09-26 12:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-09-26 07:34 pm (UTC)Love the idea of your guardian angel being a clown. :)
no subject
Date: 2014-09-27 11:03 am (UTC)You really aren't ever standing still on standard stilts. You have to rock back and forth from peg to peg if there is a pause in the walking. And by "rock" I really mean step in place, lifting the stilt off the ground and placing it back.
The Pennyfarthings are actually not that difficult to mount. just situate the pedals in a stairstep fashion, where one is low and the other high, hop on from the short side back and you're there! It takes a lot of energy and a lot of muscles you didn't realize you had to ride one of those! I'm glad standard bicycles have since come into vogue!
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Date: 2014-09-27 11:14 am (UTC)Women walk in high heels all day, and I definitely don't know how that's done!
But thanks for reading along! I'm pleased I got to give you a bit of that commanding view!
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Date: 2014-09-27 11:23 am (UTC)Though I do lament not having at least a few pages of my thoughts at the time, maybe that helps the stories be less technical and more of the romance of the work? I hope so!
no subject
Date: 2014-09-27 11:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-09-27 12:06 pm (UTC)I was commenting how walking around in high heels is really the stunt! And stilettos are extremely thin. I applaud your talents in that realm!
So, wait. You've never attended any circus of any sort ever? When I was a kid, Ringling Bros. would move into Madison Square Garden for 12 weeks! We usually went a couple of times a year during that.
These days, Cirque du Soleil is kind of the standard for performance of that sort, but there are lots of other smaller shows that are just as fun.
If I've intrigued you enough to attend one of them, I'll feel fulfilled!
no subject
Date: 2014-09-27 01:33 pm (UTC)Domino effects are not typical, as the preparation that goes into a stilt walk is intense.
Thanks for reading along. Clown College was a really incredible experience, and definitely changed my life in lots of ways, some that have nothing to do with circus or clowning!
no subject
Date: 2014-09-27 01:40 pm (UTC)Thanks! Falling once from stilts is once enough!
no subject
Date: 2014-09-27 01:41 pm (UTC)