Teeterboard

The teeterboard or Korean plank is an acrobatic apparatus that resembles a playground

seesaw A seesaw (also known as a teeter-totter or teeterboard) is a long, narrow board supported by a single pivot point, most commonly located at the midpoint between both ends; as one end goes up, the other goes down. These are most commonly found a ...

. The strongest teeterboards are made of oak (usually 9 feet in length). The board is divided in the middle by a

fulcrum A fulcrum is the support about which a lever pivots. Fulcrum may also refer to: Companies and organizations * Fulcrum (Anglican think tank), a Church of England think tank * Fulcrum Press, a British publisher of poetry * Fulcrum Wheels, a bicy ...

made of welded steel. At each end of the board is a square padded area, where a performer stands on an incline before being catapulted into the air. The well-trained flyer performs various aerial

somersault A somersault (also ''flip'', ''heli'', and in gymnastics ''salto'') is an acrobatic exercise in which a person's body rotates 360° around a horizontal axis with the feet passing over the head. A somersault can be performed forwards, backwards ...

s, landing on padded mats, a human pyramid, a specialized landing chair, stilts, or even a

Russian bar The Russian bar (or Russian barre) is a 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. The bar itself is a flex ...

. The teeterboard is operated by a team of flyers, catchers, spotters and pushers. Some members of the team perform more than one acrobatic role. In the early 1960s the finest teeterboard acts, trained in the

Eastern Bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...

countries, performed with

Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus (also known as the Ringling Bros. Circus, Ringling Bros., the Barnum & Bailey Circus, Barnum & Bailey, or simply Ringling) is an American traveling circus company billed as The Greatest Show on Ea ...

. Korean-style teeterboard called

Neolttwigi Neolttwigi or nol-ttwigi ( ko, 널뛰기) is a traditional outdoor game of Korean women and girls that is typically enjoyed on traditional holidays such as Korean New Year, Chuseok, and Dano. Neolttwigi is similar to seesaw, except that parti ...

is a form of teeterboard where two performers jump vertically in place, landing back on the apparatus instead of dismounting onto a landing mat or human pyramid. Korean plank acts are featured in the Cirque du Soleil shows '' Nouvelle Experience'', '' Mystère'', ''

Dralion ''Dralion'' (pronounced Drah-lee-on) was a touring production by the Canadian entertainment company Cirque du Soleil. The show combined elements of traditional Chinese circus with Western contemporary circus, complementing the "East-meets-West" ...

'', ''

Corteo Corteo is a Cirque du Soleil touring production that premiered in Montreal, Quebec, Canada on April 21, 2005. As of May 24, 2005, Cirque du Soleil had broken its record of spectators for the première location in Montreal; more than 200,000 p ...

'', ''

Koozå ''Koozå'' is a touring circus production by Cirque du Soleil which premiered in Montréal, Quebec, Canada, in 2007. The show was written and directed by David Shiner, who had previously worked as a clown in Cirque du Soleil's production of ''Nou ...

'' and ''

Amaluna ''Amaluna'' was a touring show by Cirque du Soleil. It was created and directed by Diane Paulus and is loosely inspired by '' The Tempest'' by William Shakespeare. It opened in Montréal, Quebec, Canada, on April 19, 2012. The cast is 70% female ...

''. Flying Fruit Fly Circus, based in

Albury Albury () is a major regional city in New South Wales, Australia. It is located on the Hume Highway and the northern side of the Murray River. Albury is the seat of local government for the council area which also bears the city's name – the ...

NSW Australia, uses custom teeterboards (handmade in-house) in numerous national and international shows. The Hungarian board (''bascule hongroise'') has a higher fulcrum, and the pushers jump from a height (e.g., from a tower). {{Circus skills Circus equipment Circus skills