Name that 10-foot pole!

February 12, 2008 8:17 AM

CircusFilter: What is the name of the pole used to balance on a tightrope?

My band mate wrote a 15 minute song with a lot of changes and complicated passages. Appropriately, he wants to name it after the long, flexible balancing pole that tightrope (particularly highwire) walkers occasionally use. Despite trying various combinations of words, my google skills just aren't what they used to be. I would appreciate any knowledge, research, or speculation the hive mind has to offer. Thanks!

Bonus points if it's poetic, archaic, and/or Portuguese.

posted by Benjamin Nushmutt to Media & Arts (14 answers total)

I think it's just called a balance pole. Perhaps it could be translated.
posted by JanetLand at 8:24 AM on February 12, 2008

I always just thought it was called a balance pole. The Wikipedia entry on tightrope walking doesn't have a specific term either.
posted by antifuse at 8:26 AM on February 12, 2008

When I was in the Flying High circus, we called them balance poles. To my recollection they're heavy and have a bend in the middle and are not all that flexible.
posted by methylsalicylate at 8:26 AM on February 12, 2008

Thank you for the answers so far--I have checked those links already, and "balance pole" is a correct term, but it's rather clunky as a song title. (Would you listen to a song called Balance Pole? Yeah, me neither.)

Oh, and 1: zing!
posted by Benjamin Nushmutt at 8:48 AM on February 12, 2008

"Balance" is a bit of a misnomer. They are long and heavy to place the center of gravity low, near the wire, so the walker is much less likely to fall off.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 8:49 AM on February 12, 2008

Maybe you could find the word for it in another more poetic language, e.g. French.
posted by allelopath at 8:50 AM on February 12, 2008

Well, Wikipedia says that tightrope walking is also known as funambulism, so I'm sure you could cook up something with that. Funambustick? Funambushaft?
posted by Ohdemah at 8:53 AM on February 12, 2008

How about a balancier?

Definition 3a: [The long pole used by tumblers and tightrope walkers to keep their equilibirium]
posted by ormondsacker at 8:54 AM on February 12, 2008

When you translate balancier from French to Portuguese you get balanceiro...but I don't know if that word really works. Further translations seem to say that it means pendulum, which isn't exactly the thing you describe.
posted by cabingirl at 10:08 AM on February 12, 2008

I tried that too, cabingirl, and got the same "pendulum". A Portugese tightrope walker is a funâmbulo, but darned if I can find any reference to the pole he uses. (In particular 'balanciero + funâmbulo' doesn't come up with any useful results.) Note to Portugese-speaking netizens - fewer tightrope-walking metaphors, more tightrope-walking data.
posted by ormondsacker at 10:21 AM on February 12, 2008

It's not the right word, but the principle is similar to "counterweight", which has some evocative possibilities, especially in music.
posted by Rumple at 11:09 AM on February 12, 2008

I know no Portuguese, but a title including the words "rope-dancer's balance preserver" would alliterate nicely.
posted by Abiezer at 11:12 AM on February 12, 2008

Another word with similar meaning is "outrigger"
posted by Rumple at 11:13 AM on February 12, 2008

The help is very much appreciated--thank you all for taking time to respond.
posted by Benjamin Nushmutt at 2:05 PM on February 14, 2008