Acrobatics
Acrobatics is a physical discipline involving feats of balance, agility, strength, and coordination, performed individually or in groups.
Balance (ability): The ability to maintain or recover a body's position against forces that would displace it. Acrobats control their center of mass during poses, transitions, and landings.
Gymnastics: A sport involving exercises that develop or display strength, flexibility, balance, and coordination. Many gymnastics events center on acrobatic tumbling, rotations, or balances.
Center of mass: The point representing the weighted average position of an object's mass. Its position relative to a support base determines whether a balance can be held.
Contortion: A performance art in which extreme flexibility is used to create unusual body shapes and movements. Contortion overlaps with acrobatics but emphasizes extreme flexibility more than dynamic feats.
Ancient Greek athletics: Competitive physical practices in ancient Greece, including running, wrestling, and other contests. Ancient Greek art and performance included bodily displays that help contextualize early acrobatic acts.
Spatial orientation: The perception of the body's position and movement relative to its surroundings. Inversions and aerial rotations demand accurate awareness without relying on a stable horizon.
Acrobatic gymnastics: A gymnastics discipline in which partners or groups perform balances, throws, catches, and tumbling routines. It formalizes group and partner acrobatics as a judged competitive sport.
Angular momentum: A measure of rotational motion that depends on an object's mass distribution and angular velocity. Body shape changes in flight alter rotation rate while total angular momentum is conserved.
Aerial arts: Performance disciplines using suspended apparatus such as silks, trapeze, or hoop. Aerial arts add apparatus and suspension to skills that may also be acrobatic.
Minoan bull-leaping: A motif from Bronze Age Crete depicting figures vaulting over bulls. It is a prominent ancient image of a feat resembling acrobatic vaulting.