Coffee Table Book of: Acrobatics and Tumbling (Hardcover)

Description

Coffee Table Book of: Acrobatics and Tumbling is a large format book of acrobatics and tumbling, printed edge to edge in colour, one picture to a page and the widest carried across two: the spring floor and its mats, chalk and tape, halls, barns and circus rings empty from first light to late at night, the kit being made and cared for, the old days of fairs and the circus, and a few acrobats seen far off in plain dark clothing.

The kit is laid out plain: folding mats of blue vinyl, a crash mat, a wedge and a foam barrel, a roll of tape, wrist supports, a block and a bowl of chalk, a steel spring from under the floor, a spotting belt with its ropes, a leotard on a peg, a hair band and pins, a stretch band, a whistle, a speaker and a clipboard for the judges, with mats, a mini trampoline, a springboard and a teeterboard carried out to a beach, a salt pan, a desert flat, a snowy field and a hilltop under the moon.

The making and care follow plywood panels stacked for a new floor, foam laid over the boards and carpet unrolled on top, foam slabs cut for mats and a vinyl cover stitched, a floor swept and brushed and a mat washed down. The past runs from a bull in a misty meadow, recalling the bull leapers of ancient wall paintings, and the courtyards and market squares where tumblers once performed, to a horsehair mat, an old springboard, wooden handstand blocks, wall bars, an early trampoline, a perch pole, a trapeze, a circus wagon in the snow, tents and a sawdust ring.

Short notes run through the book, on the skills and events of the sport, the floor and kit and how they are made, and the history of acrobats from ancient times to the circus and the gym: hand balancers train on low wooden blocks that lift the hands clear of the floor, chalk dries the sweat on the hands, so a grip or a catch holds firm, gym chalk is magnesium carbonate, pressed into soft blocks that crumble in the hand, and a spotting belt on ropes lets a coach hold a tumbler safely through a new twist.

Printed in full colour on heavy 150gsm coated paper at 216 x 279 mm (8.5 x 11 inches), as a hardcover with the art printed on the case.