The first attempted with the feet firm, that is to say without springboard or batoude, is the somersault backward. This is much easier to learn than the somersault forward. The neophyte wears a strong tight belt provided with a ring above each hip. Cords are passed through these rings, and are held by two companions in work, enabling them to uphold the gymnast. The latter strives to turn round upon the axis formed by the two cords, gradually decreasing his reliance upon them. At last he can dispense with them entirely.
Before the acrobat attempts the somersault forward, he must go through the whole series of exercises in posturing. [p244] First bending forward or “posturing,” the hands laid flat upon the ground so as to support the body, which is raised with the legs opened, the first time in the form of a Y, the second time in an elongation of I.
Then comes bending backward, in which the body is arched in an inverse sense, the hands on the ground near the heels.
Next follows the curvet, which is performed by throwing the body suddenly backwards until the hands touch the ground. And at the moment they reach the floor a vigorous relaxation of the muscles of the legs makes the acrobat rebound upon his feet.
When any one has mastered these three primeval exercises, he may attempt the somersault forward without the aid of his hands. He must now rely upon combining these various acquirements in “acts” of his own invention that will dazzle and astonish the public.
The classical performance of a carpet acrobat opens by bending backward. It is continued by a monkey’s somersault—a decomposition of the somersault backward, by the rondade—a curvet backwards, and then by a somersault.
But vaulters do not end here; each of them varies in an infinite number of ways by the acts of his invention, the outline of his acrobatic career. He introduces an Arab somersault (a somersault from the side, which is obtained by starting from the ground on one foot only); the lion’s somersault, which is a monkey’s somersault forward; the coward’s leap, in which the acrobat, lying upon his back, raises himself by one effort of the loins; the forward somersault, a lion’s somersault without the hands, which throws the man, legs in air, head downwards upon the nape [p245] of his neck; the carp’s leap, also the sudden spring of an extended acrobat, which raises him to his feet through the relaxation of the muscles of the spine.
The double somersault cannot be performed from the carpet without assistance; the artist must spring from the shoulders of a companion, or with the aid of the peculiar spring-board which French banquistes call the batoude. With [p246] the batoude Auriol cleared twenty-four bayonets with a flying somersault, ended by a dive—a jump from a great height.[12] With the batoude specialists have bounded over twenty-four horses, and at the gymnasium Du Marais, belonging to M. Pascaud, last year an amateur, M. Mars, performed a triple somersault.