Acrobatics in one form or another has existed for millennia and its roots are found in the organized gymnastics found in the ancient Greece and Rome. The Bronze Age art of that time depicts the primitive forms of acrobatics, notably the bull-jumping that is attacking a bull found in ancient cultures with traditions of bull worship.
There are even some constant references to acrobatics in the Iliad and The Odyssey, both of Homer’s epic literary works (Homer – One of the greatest and most influential authors of all time who lived in Ionia in the 8th – 9th Century BC). Similarly, China also had a tradition of acrobatics since the Han Dynasty, when acrobatics were part of the harvest festivals, and Wei Dynasty art that depicted the hand-balancing.
Acrobatics have also been a part of entertainment in ancient Greece, where it was an important part of social events known as Symposia. Acrobatics as upper-class entertainment continued as a keeper of European courts during the Middle Ages, when troupes of acrobats, tumblers and jugglers traveled from city to city to perform in early circuses. Handstands and other gymnastic skills were typical master strokes of the circus strongman.
Acrobatics and tumbling were an important skill during the Vaudeville era (Vaudeville is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century), as they were highly valued as entertainment. At the beginning of the 20th century, two directions emerged in the development of acrobatics. The first was acrobatics on apparatus (trapeze, ropes, etc.), which remains a fixture of circus performances. The other was tumbling and Pyramid.
Initially these were used only to show the efficiency of the human body, but later on they were developed into a competitive sport. In Soviet times, packed stadiums saw massive gymnastics performances, with hundreds of acrobats working together to form complex figures including giant human pyramids, a practice that can still be seen at North Korea’s Arirang Festival.
Acrobatics as a competitive discipline emerged from the Soviet Union, where the first competition rules were drawn up. The first Soviet national championships took place in 1939, but World War II interrupted the development of the discipline. 먹튀검증 The first international tournament named Sport Acrobatics took place in Warsaw, Poland in 1957, in which four Eastern-Bloc teams competed – Bulgaria, the German Democratic Republic, Poland and the Soviet Union. A world governing body, the International Federation of Sports Acrobatics (IFSA), was established on 23 November, 1973 and initially represented 12 national governing bodies.
The first World Championships were held in Moscow the following year with teams from Bulgaria, the Federal Republic of Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Poland, the Soviet Union and the United States. In 1998, the International Federation of Sports Acrobatics was dissolved and the discipline was adopted by the International Gymnastics Federation, with the goal of uniting all gymnastics disciplines and making acrobatics eventually become an Olympic sport.
The 16th World Championship, and the first World Championship of the FIG era, took place in 1999 in Ghent, Belgium. Since 2007, this discipline is known as Acrobatic Gymnastics. With their rich history of acrobatics and innovation, teams from China and Russia continue to dominate International competition in Acrobatic Gymnastics, while countries such as Great Britain and Belgium have improved dramatically.