page_title: Aerial silk
section_title: Rigging
hierarchical_section_title: Aerial silk / Rigging
caption_attribution_description: English: Blue Lapis Light performance in the Grand Foyer of the Wortham Center for the Houston (Texas, USA) Society for the Performing Arts 50th anniversary party.
context_page_description: Aerial silks is a type of performance in which one or more artists perform aerial acrobatics while hanging from a fabric. The fabric may be hung as two pieces, or a single piece, folded to make a loop, classified as hammock silks. Performers climb the suspended fabric without the use of safety lines and rely only on their training and skill to ensure safety. They use the fabric to wrap, suspend, drop, swing, and spiral their bodies into and out of various positions. Aerial silks may be used to fly through the air, striking poses and figures while flying. Some performers use dried or spray rosin on their hands and feet to increase the friction and grip on the fabric.
context_section_description: Aerial rigging applies to the hanging of aerial silks. Aerial silk rigging equipment commonly includes:
  a figure-eight descender, rescue eight, ring, or another piece of hardware for attaching the silk;
  a ball-bearing swivel to keep the silk from twisting and to allow for spinning;
  carabiners for connecting the silk hardware to the swivel, and for connecting the swivel to a mounting point. Depending on the setup, there can be multiple carabiners in use at one time.
  Carabiners are the most used rigging piece for all aerial arts, but only two or three styles are safe for aerial use; these are the auto lock gate and screw gate carabiner.  rated two different ways, one for the spine and one for the gate. Distributing weight on the gate is not recommended, for it is about 1/3 of the spine kN rating. For aerial silk as for other aerial arts, a screw gate carabiner is used rotated to screw down to decrease the risk that the carabiner will accidentally open or that the screw gate will become unscrewed.
  A span set or daisy chain are often used to add length to the silks if needed; they are also used to wrap around a beam.
  A span set is a polyester loop that can hold up to 44kN (10,000 lbs), depending on the quality.
  A daisy chain is made of nylon webbing with loops sewn on, to offer more length variation, but it is less strong then a span set and may not be able to withstand the downward force of drops and other aerial tricks. A basic daisy chain tops out at around 4kN (1,000 lbs) on each loop, and end to end is around 22kN (5,000 lbs).
caption: Aerial silks performance
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