Tightwire

A high-tension wire that the circus artist walks and balances on. Replacing tightrope as a more reliable material that can bear more tension, tightwire is an unevenly practiced discipline – rare in the UK and many other countries, but much more common over in France where, on the one hand, there are true, old-school high wire artists (staging incredible walks between city towers, etcetera), and then, on the other, a contemporary circus movement led by the influential company Les Colporteurs, who have become internationally renowned for productions that go deep into the technique of tightwire in search of a unique theatre of poetry and abstraction.