The Trapeze Artist


Book Description

An exceptional, break-out, coming-of-age novel from the talented Betty Trask Award-winning writer, Will Davis




Queen of the Air


Book Description

A true life Water for Elephants, Queen of the Air brings the circus world to life through the gorgeously written, true story of renowned trapeze artist and circus performer Leitzel, Queen of the Air, the most famous woman in the world at the turn of the 20th century, and her star-crossed love affair with Alfredo Codona, of the famous Flying Codona Brothers. Like today's Beyonce, Madonna, and Cher, she was known to her vast public by just one name, Leitzel. There may have been some regions on earth where her name was not a household expression, but if so, they were likely on polar ice caps or in the darkest, deepest jungles. Leitzel was born into Dickensian circumstances, and became a princess and then a queen. She was not much bigger than a good size fairy, just four-foot-ten and less than 100 pounds. In the first part of the 20th century, she presided over a sawdust fiefdom of never-ending magic. She was the biggest star ever of the biggest circus ever, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, The Greatest Show on Earth. In her life, Leitzel had many suitors (and three husbands), but only one man ever fully captured her heart. He was the handsome Alfredo Codona, the greatest trapeze flyer that had ever lived, the only one in his time who, night after night, executed the deadliest of all big-top feats, The Triple--three somersaults in midair while traveling at 60 m.p.h. The Triple, the salto mortale, as the Italians called it, took the lives of more daredevils than any other circus stunt.




The Fundamentals of Flying Trapeze


Book Description

From the founder of flying-trapeze.com, this book illustrates the fundamental principles, techniques and equipment of Flying Trapeze. With hundreds of clear and simple diagrams illustrating tricks gathered from trapeze schools around the world, this is an invaluable reference guide for the recreational trapeze artist.




Between Trapezes


Book Description

Explains how uncertainty can become a catalyst for reinventing one's life, offering a guide that demonstrates how to let go without a safety net and overcome life's transitions to seek new fulfillment, success, and accomplishment.




Louise Trapeze Is Totally 100% Fearless


Book Description

"Six-year-old Louise Trapeze lives at the circus and can't wait to fly on the trapeze until she discovers that she is afraid of heights"--




Flying, Falling, Catching


Book Description

Henri Nouwen’s never-before-published story of his surprising friendship with a traveling trapeze troupe. During the last five years of his life, best-selling spiritual author Henri J. M. Nouwen became close to The Flying Rodleighs, a trapeze troupe in a traveling circus. Like Nouwen’s own life, a trapeze act is full of artistry, exhilarating successes, crushing failures and continual forgiveness. He wrote about his experience in a genre new to him: creative non-fiction. In Flying, Falling, Catching, Nouwen's colleague and friend Carolyn Whitney-Brown presents his unpublished trapeze writings framed by the true story of his rescue through a hotel window by paramedics during his first heart attack. Readers will meet Nouwen as a spiritual risk taker who was transformed through his engagement with these trapeze artists, as well as his participation in the Civil Rights movement, his life in community with people with intellectual disabilities, his personal growth through friendships during the 1990s AIDS pandemic, and other unexpected encounters. What will we do with our lives, and with whom will we do it? In this story of flying and catching, Nouwen invites us all to let go and fly, even when we are afraid of falling.




The Trapeze Act


Book Description

Loretta’s mother was a trapeze artist in Europe, the star of the famed Rodzirkus circus, before she walked out on her drunken husband and his debts while on tour in Australia. But a life in 1960s suburban Adelaide was always going to be difficult, even if she does land herself the most handsome young barrister of the town, and Leda’s behaviour raises more than a few eyebrows. Leda’s father, handsome barrister Gilbert Lord, has no interest in his past, but hidden in a wardrobe are the journals of his ivory merchant great-great-grandfather who led an expedition to Australia’s desert interior to search for elephants. For Loretta, growing up in her mother’s flamboyant and often outrageous shadow, life is stifling and at times brutal. But the harder she tries to separate herself from her mother, the more she longs for her attention and love—and the more she finds that the past is inextricably woven into her own life and who she is. The Trapeze Act weaves stories of the circus and the doomed ivory expedition through a novel that is at once a heartbreaking tale of the search for acceptance and a celebration of the lustre and magic of life.




From Gazoonie to Greatness


Book Description

From Gazoonie to Greatness is a Self-Help guide to dramatic milestone accomplishments. Inspired by the true story of legendary trapeze artist and world record holder, Tony Steele, readers will find his lessons in success, both extraordinary and entertaining. With questions for personal reflection at the end of each chapter, readers stay involved in the creation of their own blue-prints to their dreams. This book will teach you how to live life without regrets, using your mind, matter and motivation, to live fearlessly and shock them all. Steele did that, and has no regrets that he did. Now, he shares this technique with you.




Discovering Flying Trapeze


Book Description

Flying Trapeze has exploded in popularity as a recreational activity in recent years with over 200 schools, clubs and resorts now open on six continents. Whether you are a complete beginner or a regular flyer, this book will accompany you from your very first swing, through a series of skill progressions (including over 50 different tricks and catches), right up to advanced somersaulting tricks and flying out-of-lines. The book is illustrated with hundreds of clear and simple step-by-step diagrams explaining basic concepts, fundamental techniques, useful training tips and common problems. You'll learn everything you need to know as you arrive for your class, right from learning your trick on the practice bar, to climbing the ladder, leaving the board and making a catch. You'll also discover the roles of the instructors you will meet and learn how to use the safety equipment such as the safety net and the safety lines. The book also covers a variety of topics that will become relevant as you start to practice more regularly and at a more advanced level, such as helping out on the platform, performing in Flying Trapeze shows, using hand grips and understanding catch timings. Written by Alastair Pilgrim, the founder of flying-trapeze.com, and including contributions fromTim Cayrol, an experienced performing-arts physiotherapist, this book is an invaluable tool for the recreational trapeze artist. This book is most suitable for beginner and intermediate level flying trapeze enthusiasts. For a more advanced book, check out 'The Fundamentals of Flying Trapeze'.




The Bloomington-Normal Circus Legacy: The Golden Age of Aerialists


Book Description

Starting in the 1870s, the barns, icehouses, gymnasiums and empty theaters of central Illinois provided the practice sites for aerial performers whose names still command reverence in the annals of American circus history. Meet Fred Miltimore and the Green Brothers, runaways from the Fourth Ward School who became the first Bloomington-born flyers. Watch Art Concello, a ten-year-old truant, become first a world-class flyer, then a famous trapeze impresario and finally Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus's most successful general manager. The entire art of the trapeze--instruction, training, performance and management--became a Bloomington-Normal industry during the tented shows' golden age, when finding a circus flying act without a connection to this area would have been virtually impossible.