A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include , acrobatics, trained animals, trapeze acts, , , hooping, , juggling, magicians, Ventriloquism, and unicycle as well as other object manipulation and stunt-oriented artists. The term "circus" also describes the field of performance, training, and community which has followed various formats through its 250-year modern history. Although not the inventor of the medium, Newcastle-under-Lyme born Philip Astley is credited as the father of the modern circus.
In 1768, Astley, a skilled equestrian, began performing exhibitions of Trick riding in an open field called Ha'penny Hatch on the south side of the Thames River, England.
As styles of performance have developed since the time of Astley, so too have the types of venue where these circuses have performed. The earliest modern circuses were performed in open-air structures with limited covered seating. From the late eighteenth to late nineteenth century, custom-made circus buildings (often wooden) were built with various types of seating, a center ring, and sometimes a stage. The traditional large tents commonly known as "big tops" were introduced in the mid-nineteenth century as touring circuses superseded static venues. These tents eventually became the most common venue. Contemporary circus is performed in a variety of venues including tents, theatres, casinos, cruise ships, and open-air spaces. Many circus performances are still held in a ring, usually in diameter. This dimension was adopted by Astley in the late eighteenth century as the minimum diameter that enabled an acrobatic horse rider to stand upright on a cantering horse to perform their tricks.
A shift in form has been credited with a revival of the circus tradition since the late 1970s, when a number of groups began to experiment with new circus formats and aesthetics, typically avoiding the use of animals to focus exclusively on human artistry. Circus companies and artistes within this movement, often termed "new circus" or "cirque nouveau", have tended to favour a theatrical approach, combining character-driven circus acts with original music in a broad variety of styles to convey complex themes or stories. Since the 1990s, a more avant-garde approach to presenting traditional circus techniques or "disciplines" in ways that align more closely to performance art, dance or visual arts has been given the name "contemporary circus". This labelling can cause confusion based upon the other use of the phrase contemporary circus to mean "circus of today". For this reason, some commentators have begun using the term "21st Century Circus" to encompass all the various styles available in the present day. 21st Century Circus continues to develop new variations on the circus tradition while absorbing new skills, techniques, and stylistic influences from other art forms and technological developments. For aesthetic or economic reasons, 21st Century Circus productions may often be staged in theaters rather than in large outdoor tents.
Etymology
The word "circus" is a
Loanword from
Latin circus,
[ circus, Charlton T. Lewis, Charles Short, A Latin Dictionary, on Perseus] itself a borrowing from
Ancient Greek italic=no (kirkos), compare the variant
Homeric Greek italic=no (krikos) .
[ krikos, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus] In his book
De spectaculis, early Christian writer
Tertullian claims that the first circus games were staged by the Greek goddess
Circe in honor of her father
Helios, the sun god.
History
The modern and commonly held idea of a circus is of a Big Top with various acts providing entertainment therein; however, the history of circuses is more complex, with historians disagreeing on its origin, as well as revisions being done about the history due to the changing nature of historical research, and the ongoing circus phenomenon. For many, circus history begins with Englishman
Philip Astley, while for others its origins go back much further—to the time of the Roman Empire.
Origin
In Ancient Rome, the
circus was a roofless arena
for the exhibition of horse and chariot races, equestrian shows, staged battles, gladiatorial combat, and displays of (and fights with) trained animals. The circuses of Rome were similar to the ancient Greek
, although circuses served varying purposes and differed in design and construction, and for events that involved re-enactments of naval battles, the circus was flooded with water; however, the Roman circus buildings were not circular but rectangular with semi-circular ends. The lower seats were reserved for persons of rank; there were also various state boxes for the giver of the games and his friends. The circus was the only public spectacle at which men and women were not separated. Circus historian
George Speaight has stated that "these performances may have taken place in the great arenas that were called 'circuses' by the Romans, but it is a mistake to equate these places, or the entertainments presented there, with the modern circus". Others have argued that the lineage of the circus does go back to the Roman circuses (even if they may not be plainly
equated with the modern circus) and a chronology of circus-related entertainment can be traced to Roman times, continued by the Hippodrome of Constantinople, which operated until the 13th century, through medieval and renaissance jesters, minstrels and troubadours to the late 18th century and the time of Astley.
The first circus in the city of Rome was the Circus Maximus, in the valley between the Palatine and Aventine hills. It was constructed during the monarchy[Livy, Ab Urbe condita libri, 1.35.] and, at first, built completely from wood. After being rebuilt several times, the final version of the Circus Maximus could seat 250,000 people; it was built of stone and measured 400m in length and 90m in width.
For some time after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, large circus buildings fell out of use as centres of mass entertainment. Instead, itinerant performers, animal trainers, and showmen travelled between towns throughout Europe, performing at local fairs, such as the Bartholomew Fair in London during the Middle Ages.
Modern format
Astley and early British circus
The origin of the modern circus has been attributed to
Philip Astley, who was born 1742 in Newcastle-under-Lyme, England. He became a cavalry officer who set up the first modern amphitheatre for the display of horse riding tricks in Lambeth, London, on 4 April 1768.
[Marius Kwint, "Astley, Philip (1742–1814)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, January 2008 accessed 7 January 2014] Astley did not originate trick horse riding, nor was he first to introduce acts such as acrobats and clowns to the English public, but he was the first to create a space where all these acts were brought together to perform a show.
Astley rode in a circle rather than a straight line as his rivals did, and thus chanced on the format of performing in a circle.
[Joe Nickell (2005). "Secrets of the sideshows". p.8. University Press of Kentucky, 2005] Astley performed stunts in a 42 ft diameter ring, which is the standard size used by circuses ever since.
[ "The circus comes to the Circus". BBC News. Retrieved 13 December 2014.] Astley referred to the performance arena as a circle and the building as an amphitheatre; these would later be known as a circus.
In 1770, Astley hired
Acrobatics, tightrope walkers,
jugglers, and a clown to fill in the pauses between acts.
Astley was followed by Andrew Ducrow, whose feats of horsemanship had much to do with establishing the traditions of the circus, which were perpetuated by Hengler's and Sanger's celebrated shows in a later generation. In England circuses were often held in purpose-built buildings in large cities, such as the London Hippodrome, which was built as a combination of the circus, the menagerie, and the variety theatre, where wild animals such as lions and elephants from time to time appeared in the ring, and where convulsions of nature such as floods, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions were produced with an extraordinary wealth of realistic display. Joseph Grimaldi, the first mainstream clown, had his first major role as Little Clown in the pantomime The Triumph of Mirth; or, Harlequin's Wedding in 1781.[McConnell Stott|, Andrew (2009), The Pantomime Life of Joseph Grimaldi, Canongate Books, p. 28.] The Royal Circus was opened in London on 4 November 1782 by Charles Dibdin (who coined the term "circus"),[ "The First Circus"; Victoria and Albert Museum] aided by his partner Charles Hughes, an equestrian performer.[ Mr Philip Astley's Introduction to The First Circus in England . PeoplePlay UK. Retrieved 18 March 2007.] In 1782, Astley established the Amphithéâtre Anglais in Paris, the first purpose-built circus in France, followed by 18 other permanent circuses in cities throughout Europe.[ Philip Astley (British circus manager), Encyclopædia Britannica.][Leathers, Victor L. (1959). British Entertainers in France, University of Toronto Press, 1959, p. 29.] Astley leased his Parisian circus to the Italian Antonio Franconi in 1793.[Banham, Martin (1995). The Cambridge Guide to Theatre, Cambridge University Press, 1995, p.216.] In 1826, the first circus took place under a canvas big top.
Ricketts and the first American circus
The Englishman John Bill Ricketts brought the first modern circus to the United States. He began his theatrical career with Hughes Royal Circus in London in the 1780s, and travelled from England in 1792 to establish his first circus in
Philadelphia. The first circus building in the US opened on 3 April 1793 in Philadelphia, where Ricketts gave America's first complete circus performance.
George Washington attended a performance there later that season.
Expansion of the American format
In the Americas during the first two decades of the 19th century, the Circus of Pepin and Breschard toured from Montreal to Havana, building circus theatres in many of the cities it visited. Victor Pépin, a native New Yorker,
was the first American to operate a major circus in the United States.
Later the establishments of Purdy, Welch & Co., and of van Amburgh gave a wider popularity to the circus in the United States. In 1825, Joshuah Purdy Brown was the first circus owner to use a large canvas tent for the circus performance. Circus pioneer
Dan Rice was the most famous pre-Civil War circus clown,
[David Carlyon. Dan Rice: The Most Famous Man You've Never Heard Of] popularising such expressions as "The One-Horse Show" and "Hey, Rube!". The American circus was revolutionised by P. T. Barnum and William Cameron Coup, who launched the travelling P. T. Barnum's Museum, Menagerie & Circus, the first
freak show, in the 1870s. Coup also introduced the first multiple-ring circuses, and was also the first circus entrepreneur to use
to transport the circus between towns. By the 1830s,
were also being established alongside travelling circuses.
Touring
In 1838, the equestrian Thomas Taplin Cooke returned to England from the United States, bringing with him a circus tent.
At this time, itinerant circuses that could be
Fit-up quickly were becoming popular in Britain. William Batty's circus, for example, between 1838 and 1840, travelled from Newcastle to Edinburgh and then to Portsmouth and Southampton.
Pablo Fanque, who is noteworthy as Britain's only black circus proprietor and who operated one of the most celebrated travelling circuses in Victorian England, erected temporary structures for his limited engagements or retrofitted existing structures.
One such structure in Leeds, which Fanque assumed from a departing circus, collapsed, resulting in minor injuries to many but the death of Fanque's wife.
[ Leeds Intelligencer, 4 March 1854, p. 5, col. 3.] Traveling circus companies also rented the land they set up their structures on sometimes causing damage to the local ecosystems.
Three important circus innovators were the Italian Giuseppe Chiarini, and Frenchmen
Louis Soullier and Jacques Tourniaire, whose early travelling circuses introduced the circus to Latin America, Australia, Southeast Asia, China, South Africa, and Russia. Soullier was the first circus owner to introduce Chinese acrobatics to the European circus when he returned from his travels in 1866, and Tourniaire was the first to introduce the performing art to Ranga, where it became extremely popular.
After an 1881 merger with James Anthony Bailey and James L.
The influence of the American circus brought about a considerable change in the character of the modern circus.
From the late 19th century through the first half of the 20th century, travelling circuses were a major form of spectator entertainment in the US and attracted huge attention whenever they arrived in a city.
Russia
In 1919,
Vladimir Lenin, head of Soviet Russia, expressed a wish for the circus to become "the people's art-form", with facilities and status on par with theatre, opera and ballet. The USSR nationalised Russian circuses. In 1927, the State University of Circus and Variety Arts, better known as the Moscow Circus School, was established; performers were trained using methods developed from the Soviet gymnastics programme. When the Moscow State Circus company began international tours in the 1950s, its levels of originality and artistic skill were widely applauded.
China
Circuses from China, drawing on Chinese traditions of
acrobatics, like the Chinese State Circus are also popular touring acts.
New Circus
New Circus (originally known as
cirque nouveau) is a performing arts movement that originated in the 1970s in Australia, Canada, France,
[« Historique de la célèbre crise », Jean-Pierre Thiollet, École ouverte, n°85, February 1982, http://doc.cnac.fr/ListRecord.htm?list=link&xRecord=19102592157919207749] the West Coast of the United States, and the United Kingdom. New Circus combines traditional circus skills and theatrical techniques to convey a story or theme. Compared with the traditional circus, this genre of circus tends to focus more attention on the overall aesthetic impact, on character and story development, and on the use of
lighting design, original music, and
costume design to convey thematic or narrative content. Music used in the production is often composed exclusively for that production, and aesthetic influences are drawn as much from contemporary culture as from circus history. Animal acts rarely appear in new circus, in contrast to traditional circus, where animal acts have often been a significant part of the entertainment.
Early pioneers of the new circus genre included: Circus Oz, forged in Australia in 1977 from SoapBox Circus (1976) and New Circus (1973);
The most conspicuous success story in the new circus genre has been that of Cirque du Soleil, the Canadian circus company whose estimated annual revenue exceeds US$810 million in 2009,
Contemporary Circus
The genre of contemporary circus is largely considered to have begun in 1995 with 'Le Cri du Caméléon', an ensemble performance from the graduating class of the French circus school Le Centre National des Arts du Cirque (CNAC), directed by Joseph Nadj. In contrast to New Circus, Contemporary Circus (as a genre) tends to avoid linear narrative in favour of more suggestive, interdisciplinary approaches to abstract concepts. This includes a strong trend for developing new apparatus and movement languages based on the capacities, experience and interests of individual performers, rather than finding new ways to present traditional repertoire.
Social Circus
Performance
A traditional circus performance is often led by a ringmaster who has a role similar to a Master of Ceremonies. The ringmaster presents performers, speaks to the audience, and generally keeps the show moving. The activity of the circus traditionally takes place within a ring; large circuses may have multiple rings, like the six-ringed Moscow State Circus. A circus often travels with its own band, whose instrumentation in the United States has traditionally included
, drums,
glockenspiel, and sometimes the distinctive sound of the calliope. Performers have been traditionally referred to as artistes, although in recent years the term artists has also come into regular use. Some performers from multi-generational circus families still prefer the term
artiste and consider it to confer higher status than
artist. Conversely, some performers from the circus school training route—taken by many of the newer generations—prefer the term
artist as less pretentious than
artiste. The physical and creative skills that circus artist/es perform are known as disciplines, and are often grouped for training purposes into the broad categories of juggling, equilibristics, acrobatics, aerial and clowning. These disciplines can be honed into individual acts, which can be performed independently and marketed to many different prospective circus employers, and also used for devising solo or collaborative work created specifically for a single project.
Acts
Common acts include a variety of
acrobatics,
gymnastics (including tumbling and
trampoline), aerial acts (such as
trapeze,
aerial silk,
corde lisse,
Aerial Hoop and
aerial straps)
contortion,
stilt-walking, and a variety of other routines.
Juggling is one of the most common acts in a circus; the combination of juggling and gymnastics that includes acts like
plate spinning and the
rolling globe come under the category
equilibristics, along with more classical balance disciplines such as tightwire, slackline and unicycle. Acts like these are some of the most common and the most traditional.
are common to most circuses and are typically skilled in many circus acts; "clowns getting into the act" is a very familiar theme in any circus. Famous
have included
Austin Miles, the Fratellini Family, Rusty Russell,
Emmett Kelly,
Grock, and
Bill Irwin. The title clown refers to the role functions and performance skills, not simply to the image of red nose and exaggerated facepaint that was popularised through 20th Century mass media. While many clowns still perform in this styling, there are also many clowns who adopt a more natural look.
Daredevil Stunt performer, , and sideshow are also parts of some circus acts. These activities may include human cannonball, chapeaugraphy, fire eating, breathing, and Fire dancing, Impalement arts, magic shows, sword swallowing, or strongman. Famous sideshow performers include Zip the Pinhead, The Doll Family, and Australian stunt performer Chayne Hultgren ( The Space Cowboy), noted for extreme acts such as blindfolded arrow catching and Tesla coil performances.
Animal acts
The earliest involvement of animals in circus was just the display of exotic creatures in a
menagerie. Going as far back as the early eighteenth century, exotic animals were transported to North America for display, and menageries were a popular form of entertainment.
The first true animals acts in the circus were equestrian acts. Soon elephants and big cats were displayed as well. Isaac A. Van Amburgh entered a cage with several big cats in 1833, and is generally considered to be the first wild animal trainer in American circus history.
was a famous female tiger-tamer.
Controversy and laws
Buildings
In some towns, there are circus buildings where regular performances are held. The best known are:
In other countries, purpose-built circus buildings still exist which are no longer used as circuses, or are used for circus only occasionally among a wider programme of events; for example, the Cirkusbygningen (The Circus Building) in Copenhagen, Denmark, Cirkus in Stockholm, Sweden, or Carré Theatre in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
International awards
The International Circus Festival of Monte-Carlo
has been held in
Monaco since 1974 and was the first of many international awards for circus performers.
See also
Notes
Footnotes
Further reading
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Assael, Brenda, "Circus and Victorian Society", 2005, University of Virginia Press, Charlottesville
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Childress, Micah D. Circus Life: Performing and Laboring Under America's Big Top Shows, 1830-1920 (University of Tennessee Press, 2018), p. 247 online review.
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Provides an overview of "low-yield research" into the history of the American Circus as covered in "ragcontent newspapers and magazines such White Tops"
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Johnson, William M. 1990. The Rose-Tinted Menagerie. Iridescent Publishing
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Nance, Susan. Entertaining Elephants: Animal Agency and the Business of the American Circus (Johns Hopkins University Press; 2013) 304 pages; elephants as "actors" or creatures of agency in the American circus from 1800 to 1940.
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Simon, Linda. The Greatest Shows on Earth: A History of the Circus (Reaktion Books, distributed by University of Chicago Press; 2014); 296 pages;
External links
