Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 1980 - 17

the balance point. The ring is then located slightly above this
point so that a low angle of body tilt is assumed. Without this
angle, a balanced body might swing either up or down and the
performer would find himself upside down and unable to right
himself. With the feet slightly heavy the performer will stay upright.
Using the harness in Figure 1, and with the actor flying flat,
the wide belting around the rib cage will be carrying most of
the weight. The longitudinal straps will also be carrying some
weight, but really serve more as back-up for the main wide
belt. This main body-circling belt should be as wide as possible to spread the weight along as much of the rib cage as
possible. The longitudinal belts will also keep the rib cage belt
in position when the actor is standing upright on stage.
The weight collected in the rib cage belt must then be
transferred to the attachment. The line attachment is made
through a welded steel ring. Do not use a ring that is formed
and not welded, or it will pull open when the weight of the actor is added. A O-ring is best, as it provides a loop for line or
hook while having a flat side for belting to pass over. Without
a flat side, the belting will pull on the edges, stretch, and even
begin to rip.
For horizontal flying, the ring must collect weight from both
ends of the body harness. Pass a strap or strip of heavy
leather through the welded steel O-ring and attach it on both
sides of the ring to the body belt. Attachment should be with
rivets on both the harness and the strap if the material used is
leather. Do not use pop rivets because they are hollow aluminum; use copper or brass rivets with a rivet setter and hammer. Double headed rivets have a hollow head into which the
joining post smashes when the rivet is set with a hammer. If
webbing is used, however, use heavy-weight, waxed linen
thread and sew the webbing onto the body belt. Sewing
passes the thread through the webbing so as to loop it with
the webbing fibers, whereas rivets must be punched through
and would cut the strands of webbing. Rivets are only strong
when used in non-fibrous material such as leather and when
the heads are well set so that the washer or flange of the rivet
presses the leather together for contact weight transfer. Adhesive such as Barge is also recommended as this enhances
the leather on leather functional contact.

When building the harness, cut two panels for the front and
two panels for the back from either leather or vinyl-coated nylon. The vinyl-coated nylon (18 or 22 oz.) is extremely strong
and tear resistant. For the rear panel, lay one layer of the material down, cross the straps measuring the buckle ends so
they will fasten on the upper chest, then set the O-ring strap
onto the cross straps (see Figure 2). Lay the top layer of vinylcoated nylon over the straps and sew the lamination together.
You may prefer to sew the straps to the first layer of nylon, or
sew the straps together. But when the whole assembly is
stitched, take care to stitch the straps against each other and
against the coated nylon. The actual weight of the body

Figure 2 Vertical flying
harness attachment.

Vertical Flying
If the figure is to fly much more vertically, such as Beranger
in lonesco's A Stroll in the Air, the weight of the actor must be
carried higher. In this case, the same body harness design
might be used, but the actual point of weight transfer, the ring,
is located much higher--at about the shoulder blades. The
weight transfer could even be behind the head or neck, except that masking the hook becomes a problem, and the figure will fly almost as vertically when the ring is located between the shoulder blades. This is a decision to be faced by
the rigger and the director, however, and relates to the specific angle of flight demanded by the production.
Using the same full body harness, the weight carry is quite
different. When the figure is upright, the majority of the weight
is carried by the longitudinal straps while the rib cage band
only carries that amount of weight not carried by the long
straps. As the figure cannot fly fully vertical, but must lean
slightly forward (since there is no attachment ring directly
above the head as in the parachute harness), there will always
be some weight carried by the rib cage band.
When the weight is applied to the vertical harness straps
from the body, the attachment for the ring must be made differently. A short length of strapping (usually 2" wide) is
passed through the O-ring, pulled back on itself, and sewn to
the harness body. Attaching the O-ring to the harness in the
same fashion as before would allow the ring to pull upwards
against only the top attachments and tend to sever the ring
strap from the harness body.
USITI /Fall, 1980

Figure 3 Wrapping the actor's body with 2" nylon webbing.

Theatre Design & Technology

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