List of acrobatic activities

This is a list of circus skills, dances, performance arts, sports, and other activities that involve acrobatics.

• Acrobalance – Acrobatic art that combines elements of adagio and hand balancing.
• Acroyoga – Physical practice which combines yoga and acrobatics.
• Adagio – Performance of partner acrobalance poses and associated movements that involve stationary balances by a pair of performers.
• Aerial hoop – Circular steel apparatus (resembling a hula hoop) suspended from the ceiling, on which circus artists may perform aerial acrobatics.
• Aerial silk – Performance in which one or more artists perform aerial acrobatics while hanging from a fabric.
• Aerobatics – Practice of flying maneuvers involving aircraft attitudes that are not used in normal flight.
• Artistic cycling – Competitive indoor cycling in which athletes perform tricks (called exercises) for points on specialized, fixed-gear bikes in a format similar to ballet or gymnastics.
• Bossaball – Ball game between two teams, combining elements of volleyball, football and gymnastics with music into a sport.
• Capoeira – Afro-Brazilian martial art that combines elements of dance, acrobatics and music.
• Cheerleading - is an activity in which the participants (called cheerleaders) cheer for their team as a form of encouragement.
• Contortion – Performance art in which performers called contortionists showcase their skills of extreme physical flexibility.
• Corde lisse – Aerial circus skill or act that involves acrobatics on a vertically hanging rope.
• Cyr wheel – Acrobatic apparatus that consists of a single large ring made of aluminum or steel with a diameter approximately 10 to 15 cm (4 to 6 in) taller than the performer.
• Dances:
  • Acro dance – Combines classical dance technique with precision acrobatic elements.
  • Ballet – Performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia.
  • Breakdancing or b-boying – Athletic style of street dance from the United States.
  • Hopak – Ukrainian folk dance originating as a male dance among the Zaporozhian Cossacks but, later danced by couples, male soloists, and mixed groups of dancers.
  • Lindy Hop – American dance which was born in the African-American communities in Harlem, New York City, in 1928 and has evolved since then.
  • Pole dance – Combines dance and acrobatics centered on a vertical pole.
  • Rock and roll – Very athletic, competitive form of partner dance that originated from Lindy Hop.
  • Swing dance – Group of dances that developed with the swing style of jazz music in the 1920s–1940s, with the origins of each dance predating the popular "swing era".
• Diving – Sport of jumping or falling into water from a platform or springboard, usually while performing acrobatics.
• Globe of death – Circus and carnival stunt where stunt riders ride motorcycles inside a mesh sphere ball.
• Figure skating – Sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform on figure skates on ice.
• Freerunning – Way of expression by interacting with various obstacles and environment. May include flipping and spinning.
• Freestyle BMX – Bicycle motocross stunt riding on BMX bikes.
• Freestyle motocross – Variation on the sport of motocross in which motorcycle riders attempt to impress judges with jumps and stunts.
• Freestyle scootering – Extreme sport that involves using stunt scooters to perform freestyle tricks that are similar to bicycle motocross (BMX) and skateboarding.
• Freestyle skiing – Skiing discipline comprising aerials, moguls, cross, half-pipe, slopestyle and big air as part of the Winter Olympics.
• Freestyle skydiving – Competitive skydiving discipline where one member of a two-person team performs acrobatic manoeuvres in free fall while the other one films the performance from a close distance using a helmet-mounted camera.
• Gymnastics – Sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, and endurance.
• Hooping – Manipulation of and artistic movement or dancing with a hoop (or hoops).
• Juggling – Physical skill, performed by a juggler, involving the manipulation of objects for recreation, entertainment, art or sport.
• Jump rope – Tool used in the sport of skipping/jump rope where one or more participants jump over a rope swung so that it passes under their feet and over their heads.
• Kiteboarding – Extreme sport where the kiteboarder harnesses the power of the wind with a large controllable power kite to be propelled across the water, land, or snow.
• Parkour – Training discipline using movement that developed from military obstacle course training. Includes running, climbing, swinging, vaulting, jumping, plyometrics, rolling, quadrupedal movement (crawling).
• Pole climbing – Ascending a pole which one can grip with his or her hands.
• Professional wrestling – Form of wrestling and athletic theatrical performance, wherein athletic performers portray prizefighters competing in matches with predetermined, scripted outcomes.
• Russian bar – Circus act which combines the gymnastic skills of the balance beam, the rebound tempo skills of trampoline, and the swing handstand skills of the uneven bars and the parallel bars.
• Salto del pastor (shepherd's leap) – Folk sport practised throughout the Canary Islands.
• Skateboarding – Action sport that involves riding and performing tricks using a skateboard, as well as a recreational activity, an art form, an entertainment industry job, and a method of transportation.
• Slacklining – Act of walking, running or balancing along a suspended length of flat webbing that is tensioned between two anchors.
• Snowboarding – Recreational and competitive activity that involves descending a snow-covered slope while standing on a snowboard that is almost always attached to a rider's feet.
• Spanish web – Aerial circus skill in which a performer climbs and performs various tricks on an apparatus resembling a vertically hanging rope.
• Surfing – Surface water sport in which an individual, a surfer, uses a board to ride on the forward section, or face, of a moving wave of water, which usually carries the surfer towards the shore.
• Synchronized swimming – Hybrid form of swimming, dance, and gymnastics, consisting of swimmers performing a synchronised routine of elaborate moves in the water, accompanied by music.
• Teeterboard – Acrobatic apparatus that resembles a playground seesaw. The well-trained flyer performs various aerial somersaults, landing on padded mats, a human pyramid, a specialized landing chair, stilts, or even a Russian bar.
• Tightrope – Skill of walking along a thin wire or rope. It has a long tradition in various countries and is commonly associated with the circus.
• Trampolining – Recreational activity, acrobatic training tool as well as a competitive Olympic sport in which athletes perform acrobatics while bouncing on a trampoline.
  • Wall running – Sport where the participant uses a wall and platforms placed next to the trampoline bed to do tricks.
• Trapeze – Short horizontal bar hung by ropes or metal straps from a support. It is an aerial apparatus commonly found in circus performances.
• Tricking – Training discipline that combines kicks with flips and twists from martial arts and gymnastics as well as many dance moves and styles from breakdancing.
• Tumbling – Gymnastics discipline in which participants perform a series of acrobatic skills down a 25 metres (82 ft) long sprung track.
• Water skiing – Surface water sport in which an individual is pulled behind a boat or a cable ski installation over a body of water, skimming the surface on two skis or one ski.
• Wheel of death – Large rotating apparatus on which performers carry out synchronized acrobatic skills.
• Wushu – Hard and soft and complete martial art, as well as a full-contact sport.