One of my favorite acts, the one that I will sit and watch for hours is Belly Dancing.  There is something about the movement, the art form, the inclusion of fire in some cases and sword in some cases that I really dig.  I was sitting here trying to think if I have ever been to a Ren faire that didn’t have Belly Dancing in some shape form or fashion and I can’t think of one at all.  First let’s look at the history of the art form of belly dancing. Bellydancing is the Western term for traditional Middle Eastern styles of dance.  In Arabic it is called Raqs Sharqi, in Greek it is called Ciftetelli.  Either way, these are...

I love tall people.  I love acrobats.  So, it is no surprise that I love the Barley BalancedAcrobatic Show!  When you are roaming around a Ren Fair and someone passes you, you tend to turn and look at them.  When you trun and you are staring at the knees of the person that passed you and they have a sign for a show… you follow the knees… sign. So I followed the knees to the Barely balanced show at the Georgia Ren Fest a few years agaoi and they are now one of the shows I stop at each and every year.  Starting from the three cast members coming in on stilts and the comedic removal thereof to the daring of juggling with fire...

Ride Fast, Hit Hard! I have seen Hanlon-Lees Action Theater at two fairs:  the Carolina Renaissance Festival and the Georgia Renaissance Festival.  They are the best.  Entertaining, talented, daring and just plain fun.  As a company they are Americas’s longest-running theatrical jousting company.  Wild West reenactment, fight choreography, film stunts and jousting are just the tip of the ice berg for this group.  They do outdoor stage combat and outdoor theater in settings all over the country but obviously in this article we are going to be focusing on their jousting shows. Hanlon-Lees shows are fun.  I know that is not a...

The article about Dextre Tripp made me decide to do a piece on slack rope walking. Slack rope walking or slacklining, is one of the many forms of rope walking that has existed for centuries.  Rope walking came about as an offshoot of the balancing sports that were part of early athletic competitions (ie – balance beams).  From the beams to the rope seemed to be a quick transition.  The first ropes that were walked were tight ropes but soon it became necessary to increase the difficulty – slack rope walking was born.  But why is this harder than walking a tight rope The tight rope requires the performer to keep their center of...