Stilt

Description

Made most frequently out of wood or metal, they make it possible to reach heights which vary in general between 20/30 cm and 3/4 meters in height. However higher heights were reached, exceeding the 7/8 meters, the world records being with several tens of meters.

The stilts were strongly popularized thanks to the Cirque initially, then more recently with the Théâtre of street. But far from being only one technique of spectacle, one finds them used in various forms on all the continents.

Use

The use that one in fact is very variable. They can be set of children practiced in the Andes cordillera or in Asia, work tools used by the plasterers in France, the fruit gatherers in Morocco or in California, but also technical of dance.

It is in this last category that the study is most interesting because it offers a great diversity in the practices.

There do not seem to be an origin particular to the use of the stilts, or a historical filiation from one country to another, but rather of the simultaneous appearances with various places of the sphere. In many countries the stilts result from a long tradition - although it is in general difficult to date the first uses.

One finds for example waders in France (the shepherds landais), which used the stilts to monitor the sheep. The stilts were necessary in this area of marshes which will be transformed only starting from the end of the 18th century thanks to the drainage works undertaken by Bremontier then Chambrelent. Probably appeared about the 18th century, this function, disappeared thereafter to be maintained like technique of dance or race.

In Europe one also finds traditions of waders in Belgium, in the North of Spain, in Holland… Thus in Namur in Belgium, the stilts became since the 15th century the support of a typical activity: tournament on stilts. In Africa, the practice is particularly important there. One finds some in almost all the countries of West Africa (Togo, Bénin, Mali, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Senegal…). There still, the uses are radically different from one place to another. So at the Dogons, in Mali, they have a value very strong symbolic system and are used in a quite particular context of ceremony, in Togo, for example, they, above all, are used for a festive practice and like a means of exceeding itself. Particularly interesting case when it is known that the waders evolve/move between 2 and 4 meters in height. It is besides on this continent that one finds the greatest concentration height of stilts higher than 2 meters.

One also finds waders in Asia, or South America. On the latter continent, it seems that it is less one tradition which an importation of the technique by people having worked in circuses in the United States. With share in Bolivia, the use seems relatively recent in this part of the world.

If the traditional aspect is incontestably rich in diversity, it is perhaps by the way of the theater of street that the stilts developed. Many troops and companies use them ( Friche Theater Urbain …).

They can be a means of creating new characters by the lengthening of the legs (which was accompanied sometimes also by a lengthening of the arms).

Others use them like a means of evolving/moving higher. They then replace a scene to offer interesting conditions of play with respect to the public in the street.

Evolution

The tool in itself changed considerably. If the majority of the companies of streets or circus use them in its most traditional form (a tube right placed under the axis of the foot), one also finds stilts which are bent ( Tal' harn ), others which use an effect arises or more recently compression. This last type of stilts (compressed-air) allows a use much lifting and sporting (Cies Three points of suspension , Malabar …).

Zoology

The birds provided with large legs which live in the marshes are called wader S.

Dwelling

The tchanquées huts '' '' (of the word tchanca , which means stilt in Gascon), are typical huts of fishermen on Piloti S of the Bassin of Arcachon, from which they became one of the symbols.

External bonds

Namurian Echasseurs - practical of the stilts with Namur since 1411

Random links: