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.

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