Stilts are poles, posts or pillars that allow a person or structure to stand at a height above the ground.
Stilts for walking have platforms for the feet and may be strapped to the user's legs. Stilts have been used for many hundreds of years.[ Les Echasseurs Namurois. (visited 2008-03-11)]
Types
Hand-held
Hand-held stilts are used as childhood toys and in circus skills workshops and are of two main types: string and can/bucket stilts and pole stilts. Unlike other forms of stilts, hand-held stilts are not tied or strapped to the wearer.
Hand-held pole stilts consist of two long poles, each with a foot support. The stilt walker holds onto the upper end of the pole, rests their feet on the foot plates, and pulls upward on the pole while taking a step.
A second type of hand-held pole stilts are similar to the first type but end in a handle so the walker has more control and flexibility to move their stilts. Those type of stilts can be very high (more than under feet).
Hand-held string stilts (also known as tin can or bucket stilts) are platforms with strings attached to them. The platforms, most commonly made of or small plastic upturned buckets hold the stilt walker's weight while the strings are used to pull the cans to the feet as they take a step.
Peg
Peg stilts, also known as Chinese stilts, are commonly used by professional performers. These stilts strap on at the foot, ankle, and just below the knee. Peg stilts are often made from wood but can also be made of aluminium or tubular steel. This type of stilts are the most lightweight ones and allow a user to walk quickly, to turn suddenly, and even to jump rope or dance. The stilt walker must keep moving at all times to keep their balance.
Drywall
Drywall stilts are adjustable tools designed for elevating users to reach high ceilings and walls, eliminating the need for frequent ladder or bench climbing and thereby reducing task completion times. They are widely utilized by tradespeople in drywall installation, electrical work, insulation, acoustics, painting, and other construction tasks. Constructed from lightweight yet robust materials like aluminum or magnesium, these stilts include features such as padded calf braces, secure straps at calves, ankles, and toes, dual-action springs for balance, and non-slip soles for stability and comfort. Compared to peg stilts used in performance arts and traditional wood stilts, drywall stilts excel in adjustability, safety, strength, and efficiency, minimizing fatigue and boosting productivity among professionals.
Spring
Spring stilts also known as bounce stilts are spring-loaded and allow the user to run, jump and perform various acrobatics. Spring stilts using fiberglass leaf springs were patented in the United States in 2004 under the trademark "PowerSkip", marketed for recreational and extreme sports use.
[Alexander Böck (Apr 13, 2004) "Device for helping a person to walk".] Using these stilts is also called
powerbocking, named for the stilts' inventor, Alexander Boeck. Spring stilts are often mostly made of aluminium. Spring stilts using steel coil springs, an antecedent of the
pogo stick, were attempted in the 19th century.
[George H. Heerington (Feb 22, 1881) "Spring-stilt"][Nicholas Yagn (Oct 21, 1890) "Apparatus for facilitating walking"]
Digitigrade
The
digitigrade stilt is a peg stilt whose line follows the foot and not the shin bone. This allows costumers to mimic the walk of an animal. Because of the extreme stresses on this type of design they tend to be more rare; that is, fewer successful home-made designs.
Articulated
This type of stilt is similar to drywall stilts in that they allow the walker to stand in one place without having to shift weight from foot to foot to stay balanced. Articulated stilts feature a flexing joint under the ball of the foot and, in one variant, under the heel. These stilts are commonly used in theme parks such as Walt Disney World and Universal Studios because they allow performers to safely dance and perform stunts that would easily damage other types of stilts. Two brands of articulated stilts include "Bigfoots" manufactured by Gary Ensmenger of Orlando, Florida, and "Jay Walkers", manufactured by Stilt Werks of Las Vegas, Nevada.
[ "Stilt Werks". stiltwerks-inc.com.][Gary Ensmenger (Feb 18, 1986) "Toe-articulated stilt"]
History
In Armenia,
Urartu bronze belts dating from the 9th to 7th centuries BCE have been found depicting acrobats on stilts.
[Ursula Seidl, "Bronzekunst Urartus". 2004, Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz am Rhein, Germany, p. 141] Archaeological ruins and texts show that stiltwalking was practised in
ancient Greece as far back as the 6th century BCE. The
ancient Greek word for a stilt walker was κωλοβαθριστής (
kōlobathristēs),
[ κωλοβαθριστής, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus] from κωλόβαθρον (
kōlobathron), "stilt",
[ κωλόβαθρον, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus] a compound of κῶλον (
kōlon), "limb"
[ κῶλον, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus] and βάθρον (
bathron), "base, pedestal".
[ βάθρον, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus] Some stilt use traditions are very old. In
Namur, Belgium, stilt walkers of Namur have practiced fights on stilts since 1411.
[Les échasseurs namurois. "Stilt walkers of Namur : fights on stilts". echasseurs.org.] The inhabitants of marshy or flooded areas sometimes use stilts for practical purposes, such as working in
swamps or fording swollen rivers. The shepherds of the
Landes forest of southern
France used to watch their flocks while standing on stilts to extend their field of vision, while townspeople often used them to traverse the soggy ground in their everyday activities.
Stilts were used by workers to attach hop grass to wires at 12 feet above the ground. This technique was documented up to the mid 20th century before being superseded.
Modern uses
Stilts can be used as a prop in entertainment, as a tool to enable other types of work to be achieved and as part of a hobby or recreation.
Entertainment
Stilts are used widely in many countries for entertainment. Stilt walkers perform in parades, festivals, street events and at corporate functions.
The festival of Anguiano (La Rioja, Spain) feature a dance on stilts in which dancers go down a stepped street while turning.
The dancers have been male for more than 400 years until 2025, when a young woman was included in the dance.
Early stilt walking acts were mostly of the style of a very tall person with the costume having long trousers or skirt to cover the stilts. More recently stilt walkers have created a wide variety of costumes that do not resemble a tall person. Examples are flowers and animals. The tall person type has also expanded to include a wide variety of themes. Examples include sportsmen, historical acts and acts based on literary or film characters.
One of the most recent varieties of stilt walking acts is a stilt walker riding a "stilt bicycle" with an extended seat post and handlebar stem.
With Light festivals being very popular around the world, Stilt walkers have incorporated technology in their costumes making. It is very common to see LED Robots on stilts or other light costumes at public or private events.
Work
walking on stilts in the Landes region of France]]Aluminium stilts are commonly used by fruit farmers in
California to prune and harvest their
peach,
plum, and
apricot trees. Stilts have been used for washing large windows, repairing roofs, and installing or painting high ceilings.
Stilts are used during drywall construction, finish painting, and hanging suspended ceiling tiles as means to reach high areas.
Recreation
Stilts are available to be purchased as a children's skill toy and stilts are commonly taught in circus skills workshops at schools and summer fairs and other events.
Records
In 1891
Sylvain Dornon, a stilt-walker from the
Landes forest region of France, walked from Paris to Moscow in 58 days.
[s.n. (26 September 1891). Stilt Walking: Sylvain Dornon, the stilt walker of Landes. Scientific American Supplement (821): 13122. ]
On 1 October 2001 Saimaiti Yiming of China walked on stilts in 24 hours in Shanshan County, Xinjiang, China.
On 14 September 2002 Doug Hunt of Canada walked on the heaviest stilts used. They weighed for the pair. He managed 29 steps unaided on these stilts.
On 15 November 2006 Saimaiti Yiming of China took 10 steps on stilts to break the Guinness World Record for walking on the tallest stilts.
In 2008 Roy Maloy of Australia took five steps on stilts high, an unofficial record for the tallest stilts.[ Australian stilt-walker totters to tallest mark". Brisbane Times. November 3, 2008.]
On 30 March 2008 Ashrita Furman of the US ran in 7minutes 13 seconds on spring stilts in Dachau, Germany.
On October 17, 2023 Doug Hunt of Brantford Ontario Canada at age 67 took 14 steps on 16.76 meter (55 ft) stilts, reclaiming the record that he previously set in 2002.
Gallery
File:Sylvain Dornon, the stilt walker of Landes - Project Gutenberg eText 13640.jpg|alt=Sylvain Dornon. Record holding stilt walker|Sylvain Dornon, record holding stilt walker
File:Sarumawashi-asakusa-tokyo-feb27-2021.webm|A trained monkey in Japan using stilts, 2021
File:LED Robots Stilt Walker.jpg|LED robot stilt walker
File:A stilt walker at Shahbag , Dhaka 4.jpg|Stilt walker in Bangladesh
File:Los Chancaires - Primtemps de l'arribèra 2015 (02).jpg|alt= "Chancaires" school in Saint-Pé-de-Léren (France).|Stilt walkers at a school in France
File:Koninklijke steltenlopers Merchtem.jpg|Stilt walking troupe
File:Parade through Macao, Latin City 2019 9.jpg|Stilt performers in Macau, China
File:Vietnam-0132 - Happy New Year (3343239522).jpg|Stilt walking during Tết Nguyên Đán in Vietnam
External links
