The high-flying Frenchman who famously walked a tightrope between the World Trade Center towers will share the tricks of his trade with some lucky students in Brooklyn this summer.
Philippe Petit, who stunned the city with his white-knuckle crossing in 1974, is vetting prospective pupils with a questionnaire that ranges from taste in music and books to countries visited.
The 60-year-old artist — whose illegal Twin Towers stunt was the subject of the Oscar-winning 2008 documentary “Man on Wire” — is teaching three two-day sessions next month at the Streb Laboratory for Action Mechanics in Williamsburg.
Petit was courted by the school’s founder, Elizabeth Streb, who hounded him for a decade to come teach.
There’ll be just six students, or “actors,” in each session, and those lucky enough to get in will have to shell out $1,200.
But first he’ll need to know what books they love and what languages they speak. Also on his questionnaire is the existential “Who and what inspires you?”
Oddly, no previous wire-walking experience is necessary.
“It’s been a beautiful process,” SLAM spokesman Bobby Hedglin-Taylor said yesterday of the vetting, adding the questionnaire “took people by surprise.”
Petit will lecture on the “aerial theater of balance” and teach exercises to develop “symmetry in the flesh,” according to the school’s Web site.
Aside from tightrope walking, students will also study poetry and knot-tying with Petit.
“Philippe is not just interested in teaching tightrope,” Hedglin-Taylor said. “He’s looking for people who are passionate about what they do in life.”
About 30 people have applied from around the world, Hedglin-Taylor said.
Petit has reconfigured a room at the school and installed a new wire there for his “theater of balance.”
Petit, who called his towers crossing “le coup,” became obsessed with them after reading about their construction and devoted the next six years to pulling off the feat.
He was dragged off in cuffs following the walk on Aug. 7, 1974, and paraded in front of TV cameras, but the charges were ultimately dropped.