Short answers, pulled from the story.
Acrobatics is the performance of human feats of balance, agility, and motor coordination. Acrobatic skills are used in performing arts, sporting events, and martial arts, with extensive use in disciplines such as circus, gymnastics, acro dance, and freerunning, and to a lesser extent in ballet, slacklining, and diving.
Acrobatic traditions extend back thousands of years. Minoan art from around 2000 BC contains depictions of acrobatic feats performed on the backs of bulls, and ancient Greeks practiced acrobatics as well.
Acrobatics became part of Chinese culture during the Tang dynasty, which lasted from 618 to 907. It featured in village harvest festivals and in court performances, and it continues to be an important part of modern Chinese variety art.
The term acrobatics initially applied specifically to tightrope walking, also known as funambulism. In the 19th century, its meaning expanded to include circus acts more broadly, and by the late 19th century, tumbling and related gymnastic activities had become competitive sports in Europe.
Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir created Acrobats at the Cirque Fernando, which depicts two German acrobatic sisters named Francisca and Angelina Wartenberg. Viktor Vasnetsov painted Acrobats in a Paris suburb.
A trapeze is a short horizontal bar hung by ropes or metal straps, used in static, spinning, swinging, or flying acts. Aerial silks involve performing acrobatics while hanging from a long length of fabric suspended from a frame or ceiling. An aerial hoop, also called the lyra or aerial ring, is a circular steel apparatus resembling a hula hoop that can be used static, spinning, or swinging.