If you didn’t catch the Part 1, read it here. Circus, Non-Metaphorically: The Artist and the Athlete To begin a reflection on circus from within circus, we might first ask: what could we propose as its basic element? Circus artists have spent little energy evaluating and challenging the form of circus itself, and certainly never to […]
CONTINUE READING“With the void, a free hand”¹ — Albert Camus on Yves Klein’s empty exhibition The Void, 1958 I wrote this article in response to my own experiences as a circus viewer and maker. I had begun to grow frustrated with the “trick,” an element that many see as the essential building block of circus […]
CONTINUE READINGThis summer, I caught up with Abby Neuberger and Michelle Troszak at a contemporary circus festival in Paimpont, a small town in the Northwest corner of France. They are students at Flic, a full-time circus preparatory school in Turin, and they were performing their end-of-studies collective show there at the festival, Arrête ton Cirque. Abby, […]
CONTINUE READINGThe New York International Contemporary Circus Festival brings North American circus, along with one international piece, to Marcus Garvey Park for three days of free, outdoor shows. The second edition of the festival will take place this summer from the 19th through the 21st of August. I spoke to Monique Martin, a programmer with the […]
CONTINUE READINGWhy is contemporary circus so often less dramaturgically rigorous than dance? Dance sometimes seems like Circus’ sophisticated older sister—more confident, fully-formed, less desperate to please. Maybe by closely observing the differences between the circus world and the dance world, we can bring circus out of its extended adolescence. Is there a problem in circus education? […]
CONTINUE READINGIn the first half of the last century, circus meant one thing only—a tented show, with acrobats, animals, and clowns. These shows were pure spectacle, displays of unusual skill which transcended the day-to-day experience of their audiences. Beginning in the 1970’s, however, the definition of circus began to stretch and change, as the opening of […]
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