The Flying Wallendas
Featured Troupe, High-Wire Act
Featured Troupe, High-Wire Act
Photo by Olinka Wallenda
As far back as 1780, in the cafes of Old Bohemia in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the ancestral Wallenda family was a traveling circus troupe consisting of acrobats, jugglers, clowns, aerialists and animal trainers - all in one family. Tino Wallenda, grandson of the famed Karl Wallenda, represents the sixth generation of the famous Wallenda Family. Karl Wallenda began walking the high-wire in the early 1920s, and the family tradition is being carried on by several branches of the Wallendas. Tino started on the wire at the age of seven when Karl took him into the circus backyard, put the balance-pole in his hands and taught him how to place his feet, control his body and where to focus his eyes. At the age of 12, he made his first crossing on the wire 35 feet off the ground, and, at 17, Tino became a full-fledged member of the Great Wallenda troupe. For several years he toured with, and under, the tutelage of his grandfather. Now Tino leads the Flying Wallendas, traveling with his daughters and son, eight to 10 months a year, recreating breathtaking versions of the pyramids that brought the Wallendas to the U.S. in 1928. In 1998, performing family members reunited from three separate groups, the Flying Wallendas, the Fabulous Wallendas and the Great Wallendas, to recreate their crowning achievement, The Seven-Person Pyramid, reestablishing their legacy in circus history. To debut the intricate maneuver, the Wallendas premiered their feat for the Hamid Circus Royale during the 1998 Moslem Temple Shrine Circus in Detroit, which was the scene of the Wallendas’ greatest tragedy 36 years before. Several attempts have been made by others to perform this intricate pyramid, but none, as of yet have succeeded in accomplishing the feat the way it was performed by the Wallendas - incorporating the chair and without the use of nets or safety devices of any kind. Now, Circus Flora is honored to welcome back Tino and his wife Olinka, also a sixth-generation performer, with their family the Flying Wallendas.