Life is a fine line for Nik Wallenda. This weekend, that line will be 1 1/2 inches wide and nearly 400 feet long.

Oh, and it'll be 90 feet in the air.

That's no reason to worry for Mr. Wallenda, a 30-year-old high-wire performer who at 5 p.m. Sunday will walk across the Sky Ride cable extending over the midway at Cedar Point in Sandusky.

"It's kind of life to me," he said. "It's what I've done since I was 4 years old."

It's what his family has done for generations and an art form that has fascinated Americans for just as long, continuing even today. Just last year, tightrope walker Philippe Petit's crossing between the twin towers of the World Trade Center in 1974 was made into an Academy Award-winning documentary, Man on Wire.

Mr. Wallenda's notoriety comes from more than his family name, which is renowned in the world of high-wire acts and was the subject of a 1978 TV movie, The Great Wallendas, starring Lloyd Bridges. He set the world record for highest and longest bicycle ride on a tightrope last year in Newark (135 feet high, 235 feet across) and was part of an eight-person pyramid on a high wire in Japan in 2001.

The Florida man's appearance at Cedar Point is one in a series where he'll be walking at amusement parks owned by Cedar Fair LP. In this case, Mr. Wallenda said he'll have to deal with a wire that isn't pulled nearly as tight as he's used to and which has some grease on it. At least he'll have the help of his trusty pole, a 24-foot, 45-pound extension of his arms that helps him maintain balance.

The Rev. Richard Notter, national chaplain for the Circus Fans Association of America and a Toledoan, called the upcoming display, "nothing to sneeze at."

He said it's easy to understand why audiences remain transfixed by performances like this.

"Just the fact that someone is that daring and that capable," he said. "I'm impressed with their skill and their nerve."

Though some of his family members have died in tragic falls, Mr. Wallenda doesn't dwell on the dangers. He prefers to quote his great-grandfather Karl , who died at the age of 73 when he fell during a walk: "Life is on the wire. Everything else is just waiting."

"When we're on a wire, we just feel at peace," Mr. Wallenda said. "We're really in our own sort of world at that point."

That world is evolving, even among circus performers, said Montana Miller, assistant professor of popular culture at Bowling Green State University who spent years as a professional trapeze artist before joining academia.

On the one hand are the old-school performers who honor their family legacies and use many of the same techniques. On the other are more modern circus acts that focus on creating artistic story lines, incorporating theatrics and dance.

"[Mr. Wallenda's] a hybrid between this old tradition and a new generation that really has to compete in a marketplace that's been saturated by the powerful, new-agey Cirque du Soleil," Ms. Miller said.

One way to get attention is to keep upping the ante. Mr. Wallenda plans on doing that by crossing the Grand Canyon, probably next year. He said he already has the permits.

"That's been a dream since I was young," he said.

When you come from a family like his, you have a lot of dreams. There's not a place Mr. Wallenda goes that his mind doesn't wander back to tightropes.

"I drive into any city and see the buildings and think: That would be cool," he said. "Every structure I look at I think: 'How could I attach to that?'•"

Contact Ryan E. Smith at:

ryansmith@theblade.com

or 419-724-6103

First Published July 25, 2009, 1:22 a.m.