Jules Léotard (; 1 August 183816 August 1870) was a French acrobatic performer and

aerialist Acrobatics () is the performance of human feats of balance, agility, and motor coordination. Acrobatic skills are used in performing arts, sporting events, and martial arts. Extensive use of acrobatic skills are most often performed in acro d ...

who developed the art of

trapeze A trapeze is a short horizontal bar hung by ropes, metal straps, or chains, from a ceiling support. It is an aerial apparatus commonly found in circus performances. Trapeze acts may be static, spinning (rigged from a single point), swinging or ...

. He also created and popularized the one-piece gym wear that now bears his name and inspired the 1867 song " The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze", sung by George Leybourne.

Biography

Léotard was born in

Toulouse Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...

, France, the son of a gymnastics instructor who ran a swimming pool in Toulouse. Léotard would practice his routines over the pool. He went on to study law. After he passed his law exams, he seemed destined to join the legal profession, but at age 18 he began to experiment with trapeze bars, ropes, and rings suspended over a swimming pool. He later joined the Cirque Napoléon. On 12 November 1859, the first flying

routine was performed by Jules Léotard on three trapeze bars at the Cirque Napoleon. The costume he invented was a one-piece knitted garment streamlined to suit the safety and agility concerns of trapeze performance. It also showed off his physique, impressed spectators, and took on his name. At age twenty-four in July 1862, Léotard married a Tuscan actress named Silvia Bernini, whom he had met earlier in January. They bought an estate in France and met each other's families. Yet by June 1864, Léotard, who was on a trip in Paris, informed Bernini via telegraph that he was seeking a divorce. Bernini traveled to Paris to speak with her husband, but they only argued more. Bernini then went to a hotel, disguised herself as a servant, and "cut off her hair, sent it to her husband in a parcel, and attempted to commit suicide by throwing herself into the

Seine The Seine ( , ) is a river in northern France. Its drainage basin is in the Paris Basin (a geological relative lowland) covering most of northern France. It rises at Source-Seine, northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plat ...

." She survived. The two ultimately divorced. In 1861, he performed in London at the Alhambra music hall. His approach did not stress the risk he took, but emphasized the "ease and grace" of his trapeze work, inspiring not fear but wonder. Léotard inspired the 1867 song ''The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze'', made popular by George Leybourne. He was also one of the

cycling Cycling, also known as bicycling or biking, is the activity of riding a bicycle or other types of pedal-driven human-powered vehicles such as balance bikes, unicycles, tricycles, and quadricycles. Cycling is practised around the world fo ...

pioneers in France right before his death at age 32. According to notes from the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...

, Jules Léotard died in 1870 from an infectious disease (possibly

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by Variola virus (often called Smallpox virus), which belongs to the genus '' Orthopoxvirus''. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (W ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Leotard, Jules French acrobats Entertainers from Toulouse 1838 births 1870 deaths French music hall performers Deaths from smallpox in France 19th-century French inventors