360° CIRCUS

This collection aims to map a diversity of approaches to the artform by creating

a 360° view on the circus.
The three sections of the book, Aesthetics, Practice, Culture, approach aes-
thetic developments, issues of artistic practice, and the circus’ role within society.
This book consists of a collection of articles from renowned circus researchers,
junior researchers, and artists. It also provides the core statements and discussions
of the conference UpSideDown—Circus and Space in a graphic recording for-
mat. Hence, it allows a clear entry into the field of circus research and emphasizes
the diversity of approaches that are well balanced between theoretical and artistic
point of views.
This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of circus studies,
emerging disciples of circus and performance.

Dr. Franziska Trapp is a postdoctoral researcher at the Freie Universität Ber-

lin, Germany, and the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium.

Riikka Juutinen is a Finnish Master of Social Sciences from the University

of Tampere with Social Anthropology as her major subject. She is interested in
questions of transnationalism and mobility, and in her master’s thesis, she focused
on themes about circus and mobility studies. Juutinen completed an internship
at the international conference UpSideDown—Circus at Zirkus | Wissenschaft
research project in 2017. Since then her area of work has been crisis work, child
protection and work with people with substance issues.
Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies

This series is our home for cutting-edge, upper-level scholarly studies and ed-
ited collections. Considering theatre and performance alongside topics such as
religion, politics, gender, race, ecology, and the avant-garde, titles are character-
ized by dynamic interventions into established subjects and innovative studies on
emerging topics.

Live Digital Theatre

Interdisciplinary Performative Pedagogies
Aleksandar Sasha Dundjerović

Performance Cultures as Epistemic Cultures, Volume I

(Re)Generating Knowledges in Performance
Erika Fischer-Lichte,Torsten Jost, Milos Kosic, Astrid Schenka

Performance Cultures as Epistemic Cultures, Volume II

Interweaving Epistemologies
Erika Fischer-Lichte,Torsten Jost, Milos Kosic, Astrid Schenka

Politics of the Oberammergau Passion Play

Tradition as Trademark
Julia Stenzel and Jan Mohr

Beyoncé and Beyond

2013–2016
Naila Keleta-Mae

Reconstructing Performance Art

Practices of Historicisation, Documentation and Representation
Tancredi Gusman

For more information about this series, please visit: https://www.routledge.com/

Routledge-Advances-in-Theatre-Performance-Studies/book-series/RATPS
360° CIRCUS
Meaning. Practice. Culture

Franziska Trapp
Cover image: Alexander Vantournhout photographed in
Prague 2017. Copyright: Franzi Kreis
Completed with the support of the Deutsche
Forschungsgemeinschaft
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 selection and editorial matter, Franziska Trapp; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Franziska Trapp to be identified as author of this work has
been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other
means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and
recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 9781032138060 (hbk)
ISBN: 9781032138527 (pbk)
ISBN: 9781003231110 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003231110
Typeset in Bembo
by codeMantra
CONTENTS

Acknowledgments vii
List of contributors ix

Introduction: welcome to the wonderland of

contemporary circus 1
Franziska Trapp

Part I
Circus meaning 19

1 Circus does not exist 21

Jean-Michel Guy

2 “La Putyka” by Cirk La Putyka: a glimpse at Czech

contemporary circus 34
Veronika Štefanová

Part II
Circus practice 41

3 On mutations of forms, style, and meaning: from a

traditional to a contemporary trapeze act 43
Sandy Sun Interviewed by Franziska Trapp and Riikka Juutinen
vi Contents

4 Articulating hand-balancing: finding space for critical

self-transformation 47
Camilla Damkjaer

5 Extreme symbiosis 55
Louise von Euler Bjurholm and Henrik Agger

6 Hamlet: to have written or not to have written for

the tightwire 71
Louis Patrick Leroux
Translated from French by Anna Vigeland and Louis Patrick Leroux

7 Verticality, gravity, sense of balance. Transmitting a

technique, conveying a sensation: practices and discourses
of circus arts teachers 87
Agathe Dumont

8 Reading circus: dramaturgy on the border of art and academia 100

Franziska Trapp

9 UpSideDown circus and space 115

Graphic Recordings by Andreas Gärtner

Part III
Circus culture 123

10 Circus between technique and technology: heideggerian

“enframing” and the contested space of free expression 125
Sebastian Kann

11 Chaplin, Brecht, Fo: toward a concept of epic clowning 136

Gaia Vimercati

12 To walk the tightwire 153

Ante Ursić

13 The spatiality of Australian contemporary circus 161

Kristy Seymour

14 Cheerful, nostalgic, melancholic: mood in circus 179

Peta Tait

Index 195
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thank You
Rebecca Walsh | Proofreading
Felicitas van Laak | Student Assistant
Riika Juutinen | Student Assistant
CONTRIBUTORS

Louise von Euler Bjurholm and Henrik Agger — are two acrobats from Stock-
holm, Sweden, educated at Moscow State School of Circus, who have worked
together since 2001.
Louise graduated 2013 from the program new performative practices at the
University of Dance and Circus in Stockholm (DOCH) with a Master’s in cho-
reography with specialization in Circus. The master’s program at DOCH was
the starting point for the research project “The art of working in pairs, a deeper
look into our practice” which began in the summer of 2011 and resulted in the
performance and the booklet called Extreme Symbiosis.
Henrik also went to the Mime Acting Program at Teaterhögskolan Stockholm
(Stockholm university of the arts) and has been involved in the establishment of
“New Circus” in Sweden as one of the original artists in the creation of Cirkus
Cirkör in 1995. As freelance artists, Henrik and Louise have been working with
companies such as the Russian State Circus and Cirkus Cirkör. They have also
been producers of their own performances.
Henrik and Louise’s work is based on research, and they always include one
or two question statements in their creative processes. Physical expression is at
the center, and their Circus discipline, Pair Acrobatics, is often the starting point.

Camilla Damkjaer, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in Performing Arts, Depart-

ment of Performing Arts, Stockholm University of the Arts. Camilla Damkjaer’s
research concerns the performing arts, movement practices, philosophies of the
body and first-person methodologies of research. Her research focuses on the
analysis of the phenomenal and socially constructed experiences circus, dance,
and yoga. Theoretically, her work draws, among other things, phenomenology,
Deleuzian scholarship, feminist, and post-colonial theory. She is also particularly
x Contributors

concerned with the historical, discursive, and geo-political implications involved

in performing arts and bodily practices.

Agathe Dumont, PhD, is a Professor of artistic education at the School of Art

and Design in Angers (ESAD TALM). Her research focuses on gesture and ar-
tistic work and she is particularly interested in the paths and practices of circus
and dance artists. Winner of two research grants from the French Ministry of
Culture, she is a member of the French collective of circus researchers and has
contributed to the recent publication of several books on contemporary circus:
Le cirque en transformation. Identités et dynamiques professionnelles (Cordier, Dumont,
Salaméro & Sizorn, EPURE: 2019) and The Cambridge Companion to Circus (Ar-
righi & Davis, Cambridge University Press: 2021). She is also associated re-
searcher to circusnext (2014–2022).

Andreas Gärtner began his professional career as a freelance illustrator in 2004.

In 2012, he graduated with a master’s degree in design and a specialization on
illustration. When he entered into an associated partnership with Kommunika-
tionslotsen in 2013, he put his professional focus on the field of graphic recording.
Together with Martin Markes, he founded “Die Zeichner” in 2014. In 2016, he
became a lecturer at Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences. In the same year,
he expanded his portfolio to include work as a speaker on the topic of creativity.

Jean-Michel Guy is a sociologist, author, director, dramaturge, and teacher of

critical analysis. From 1980 until his retirement in 2021, he was a research en-
gineer at the French Ministry of Culture (Department of Studies, Forecasting,
Statistics and Documentation) where he conducted studies on cultural practices
and representations, and audiences (for cinema, theater, dance, and the circus).
In parallel, he worked and continues to work in a wide range of fields in the
contemporary circus: writing and directing shows, writing articles and books,
advising on dramaturgy, teaching and leading research laboratories.

Sebastian Kann (he/him) is an independent artist and researcher dwelling in

the interstices of circus, dance, and performance. Physical experiment lies at
the heart of his work, which often interrogates the ideological entanglements
of the body. Playing across different media—on stage, in print, and in video—­
Sebastian’s often collaborative practice is quadruple-anchored by intuition, irony,
ambivalence, and a deep love for big Theory. Having studied at l’École nationale
de cirque and Utrecht University, he is now based in Tiohtià:ke/Montréal.

Louis Patrick Leroux is a Full Professor in both departments of English and

French Studies and Associate Dean of Research at the Faculty of Arts and
­Science, Concordia University, Montréal. His research spans from theater to
contemporary circus and has involved research-creation and cultural discourse
analysis. He was elected to the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists
 Contributors xi

of the Royal Society of Canada. Recent academic books include Contemporary

Circus with Katie Lavers and Jon Burtt (Routledge, 2020), Cirque Global: Québec’s
Expanding Circus Boundaries, coedited with Charles Batson (McGill-Queen’s
University Press, 2016), and Le jeu des positions. Discours du théâtre québécois with
Hervé Guay (Nota Bene, 2014). Forthcoming books include Le cirque social : son
rôle, ses pratiques, pédagogies et aspirations with Jacinthe Rivard and Mathilde Pera-
hia (PU Laval) and Estie toastée des deux bords : Les formes populaires de l’oralité chez
Victor-Lévy Beaulieu with Sophie Dubois (PU Montréal).

Dr Kristy Seymour (she/her) is an emerging scholar and professional circus artist,

with over 20 years of experience in the Australian contemporary circus sector.
Her main research areas are autism and circus, Australian contemporary circus,
and circus performance as art form. Throughout her career, Kristy has worked
across various aspects of the circus sector as a performer, trainer, artistic director,
general manager, and producer. Her research and practice on circus and autism is
widely regarded as a “best practice” approach.
She has worked extensively in the youth circus sector leading a team of in-
spiring artists as the Head Trainer and Artistic Director of Flipside Circus in
Brisbane 2004–2010. Working as a creative producer and choreographer, she
has collaborated with leading arts organizations, venues, and festivals such as
with Strut n Fret Production House, Brisbane Powerhouse, Creative Genera-
tions, Woodford Folk Festival, Brisbane Festival, and Adelaide Fringe Festival
and Festival 2018 (Commonwealth Games 2018). In 2012, Kristy completed her
Honours thesis “How Circus training can enhance the well-being of children
with autism and their families.” She then went on to open her circus school,
Circus Stars, solely dedicated to children with autism in 2013, the topic of her
recent TEDx talk ( June 2017). Kristy recently completed her doctoral research
titled “Bodies, Temporality and Spatiality in Australian Contemporary Circus”
at Griffith University Gold Coast.

Veronika Štefanová, PhD, occasionally teaches at the Academy of Performing

Arts and at the Faculty of Business Administration in Prague. She is in charge
of the research section at CIRQUEON, the umbrella organization for contem-
porary circus in the Czech Republic and works as a cultural journalist for the
Czech Radio, Czech Television, and cultural journals. She has published articles
in divers journals and anthologies such as Disk, Theatralia, Performance Matter
and in The Cambride Companion to the Circus.

Sandy Sun Trained in mime and clowning (Covent Garden School, London,
1975) and in circus techniques (Paris, 1977), Sandy Sun is a soloist on the fixed
trapeze, awarded with various prizes: Gold Medal of the Festival Mondial du
Cirque de Demain (1980), Winner of the Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet Founda-
tion pour la Vocation (1081), laureate of the Société des Auteurs et Composi-
teurs Dramatiques de Paris (2005). She has performed with renowned circuses
xii Contributors

(e.g., Pinder/Jean Richard, Fratellini, Orfei, Roncalli, Archaos) and European

cabarets (e.g., Tiger Palatz, Gop, La Luna) Combining classicism and contem-
poraneity, she is the creator of a very personal style mixing contemporary cho-
reography and the virtuosity of classical dance. Sun holds a State Diploma as a
circus teacher and worked among others for the Académie Fratellini, the Centre
National des Arts du Cirque, the École de Cirque de Montréal, the Cie Maguy
Marin, and Cirque Baobab. She is a university lecturer, and associated artist of
two research programs at the Université Paul Valéry Montpellier III. Sun pub-
lishes and ­participates regularly at international conferences on the circus.

Professor Peta Tait, La Trobe University, is an academic and playwright and a

Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. She has written 70 schol-
arly articles and chapters and recent books include: the authored: Forms of Emo-
tion: Human to Nonhuman in Drama, Theatre and Performance (Routledge 2022);
Theory for Theatre Studies: Emotion (Bloomsbury 2021); the co-edited Feminist
Ecologies: Changing Environments in the Anthropocene (2018) and the edited The
Great European Stage Directors volume one (2018); the authored Fighting Nature: Trav-
elling Menageries, Animal Acts and War Shows (Sydney University Press 2016); the
co-edited The Routledge Circus Studies Reader; and the authored Wild and Danger-
ous Performances (2012). Her current “Towards an Australian Ecological Theatre”
collaborative project is Australian Research Council funded.

Franziska Trapp is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Berlin, G

­ ermany,
and the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium. She is the founder of the re-
search project Zirkus | Wissenschaft (Germany) and organizer of international
conferences, including Semiotics of the Circus (2015), UpSideDown—Circus
and Space (2017), Semaine du Cirque (2020), and Écrire l’histoire du cirque
(2022). She is the initiator of the Young Researchers Network in Circus Studies
(YOUR | Circus), co-initiator of the Circus Arts Research Platform (CARP),
and co-editor of the academic journal Circus: Arts, Life and Sciences (Univer-
sity of Michigan Press). Trapp has worked for various circus productions such as
the Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain (FR) and Cirque Bouffon (DE) and
collaborated as a dramaturge with Tall Tales Company (NL), Sysmo (BE), Julia
Berger (DE), and Cie Hors Système (FR), among others. She was awarded third
place as Germany’s Best Junior Research Talent of 2019 (Academics/Die Zeit) and
received the DGS Young Researchers Price 2020 (German Association of Semiot-
ics) for her PhD entitled Lektüren des Zeitgenössischen Zirkus (De Gruyter 2020,
Routledge 2023 (EN)).

Ante Ursić (PhD, University of California, Davis) is a circus practitioner and an

Assistant Professor of Physical Theatre at the Department of Theatre and Dance,
East Tennessee State University. His research investigates the human-animal re-
lationship in contemporary circus. He is especially interested in the circus’ po-
litical sphere and potential exploring how it relates to different understandings
 Contributors xiii

of animality. As circus artist, he received a gold medal from the festival SOLy-
CIRCO and a special prize from the festival Cirque du D
­ emain. He has successfully
produced projects of his own and in collaboration. He performed with estab-
lished companies such as Cirque du Soleil (Totem), Tiger Lillies Circus, Bala-
gan, and Circus Roncalli. Ante Ursić holds a Bachelor with distinction in Dance,
Context, Choreography from Inter-University Center of Dance, Berlin, and a
distinguished master’s in performance studies from New York University. His
research has received support from the German Academic Exchange Program,
the Social Science Research Council, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation,
among others.
At ETSU Ante Ursić is heading the Physical Theatre concentration and teaches
courses in the field such as Commedia dell’Arte, Modern Clowning, Theatre
Movement, Tight Wire Walking and Thinking, and Contact Improvisation.

Gaia Vimercati received an MA in Comparative Literature at Trinity College

Dublin. Together with Filippo Malerba, in 2015 she created CENSIMENTO
CIRCO ITALIA, the first map of circus companies in Italy. She is a cultural pro-
ject manager for Quattrox4, a contemporary circus centre in Milan, where she
is in charge of the development of circus studies in cooperation with Università
Bicocca as an independent researcher. She was among the contributors of Semiot-
ics of the Circus (Münster, 2015), Quand le cirque se raconte (Biennale Internationale
Des Arts du Cirque, Marseille 2021), Circus And Its Others 2021 (Davis, Califor-
nia), EASTAP 2020 (Bologna) and 2022 (Milano). She was selected by Dram-
aturg Federico Bellini for a writing residency at La Biennale di Venezia (2021).
Thanks to the support of the Italian Ministry of Culture, in 2021 she launched
the project LA PAROLA AI CORPI, a hybrid residency between practice and
theory in circus in cooperation with BASE Milano. Gaia Vimercati is the exter-
nal eye of GRETEL (2021), circus solo by Clara Storti.
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the wonderland of
contemporary circus

Franziska Trapp

Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had never
before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to take out
of it, and burning with curiosity, she ran across the field after it, and for-
tunately was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit hole under the
hedge. In another moment down went Alice after it, never once consider-
ing how in the world she was to get out again.
(Carroll 2013, 1)

Whether it is the perfect geometric figure in Plato’s philosophy, a magical gem

of Middle-earth, or Alice’s rabbit hole, the ring has always been an object of
attraction. In Wonderland, the famous fairy-tale character enters a world where
common rules are turned upside down. Top and bottom, inside and outside, each
follows its own principles. Alice’s words “Curiouser and Curiouser!” (Carroll
2013, 9) describe how our world also changes when we enter the circus universe.
What is this genre of performative arts? What is circus in terms of its meaning,
practice, and culture? How is meaning produced and transmitted in traditional,
new, and contemporary circuses? Each of these questions will be addressed in
the first part of this introduction in an analysis of Cheptel Aleikoum’s contem-
porary circus performance “Les Princesses—cirque aérien et chanté.”1 This
performance manifests the meaning of contemporary circus, how it relates to
traditional circus, and why contemporary circus differs from dance and theater.
Most importantly, it questions the place of circus in our society.
The contemporary circus performance “Les Princesses” was chosen because it
uses the means of circus as a main dramaturgic principle—not as an “homage to
circus” and not in order to declare the performance’s affiliation to the genre. Les
Princesses uses a self-referential discourse as a methodology to establish a consist-
ent universe and stimulate narrative frames with the means of circus. It must be

DOI: 10.4324/9781003231110-1
2 Franziska Trapp

stated in advance that this dramaturgic strategy is not unique to this performance
but rather characteristic of a large amount of today’s circus performances. As the
aesthetics and the dramaturgic procedures of contemporary circus performances
are extremely heterogeneous, Les Princesses should not be seen as the paradigm
for successful circus dramaturgy. It is rather one successful example among many
which could have been used in this introduction.

On the characteristics of circus

When stepping into the dome-shaped construction built for the performance
Les Princesses, the spectator has to be careful so as not to be hit by the pen-
dulating swing, on which one male artist and one female artist are sitting and
distributing cotton candy. On silver trays, liquids from liqueur glasses are served
to the audience by other artists. The ring encompasses 360° and is surrounded
by an auditorium; the background is black. A mint green ornament taped on
the ground of the ring contrasts with the forest wallpaper marking the artist
entrance. Stuffed animals and artificial flowers are used as decoration and red
glossy apples hang from the top of the mint-colored iron scaffold. The audience
is lead into a fictional microcosm of discovery, a ritual space, a fairy-tale forest,
a Disneyland.
The lights are turned down and an electric guitar starts to play, marking the
beginning of the performance. Two male artists with rabbit heads enter the ring,
moving mechanically, pulling a bed behind them, on which a princess decorated
with flowers is lying. Chimes are audible every five seconds. The words “kiss
me” are written on a sign above the princess’ head. Since none of the spectators
volunteer to do this, the rabbit-headed artists keep holding up their signs: Pas
de bisous, pas de spectacle, which means “No kisses, no show.” Finally, a coura-
geous person fulfills the task. The princess wakes up, guides her savior to the
throne placed above the entrance of the spectators, and the first act begins, “The
Cloud Swing.”
Les Princesses, created by the company Cheptel Aleikoum in October 2016,
is a contemporary circus performance comprised of three male artists and three
female artists. The rope, trapeze, and equilibristic are the main circus disciplines
presented and the performance is complemented by live music. The performance
raises the question: What is left of the stories and tales of our childhood when we
grow old? In the words of Cheptel Aleikoum (2016):

‘The princesses, or what is left of them.’ They say that tales help children
learn to accept themselves and calm themselves down, and to deal with
great fears … And after that? What is left? What is a princess today?

The performance’s title and description in the program booklet and on the web-
site offer the audience entry into a fictional world, the diegesis, and its narrative
scripts: fairy tales. How is the fairy-tale universe established in this performance?
 Introduction 3

Intertextuality and camp in Les Princesses

The stage set, the props, the costumes, and the staged circus disciplines are
­immediately associated with the famous fairy tales of Grimm, Andersen, and
Carrol: All the women are dressed in white, with transparent hoop skirts, flow-
ered white tops, and either pink sneakers or high heels, whereas the men are
wearing dark pants and pompous coats over a naked torso. The performance’s
title leads us to believe they are princesses and princes. The forest wallpaper
marking the artist entrance refers to Little Red Riding Hood. The apples hanging
from above allude to Snow White, the ring and the rabbits to Alice in Wonderland.
As the rope is slowly lowered from the top of the construction, we are reminded
of Rapunzel. And the equilibrist who appears during the last part of the perfor-
mance with her legs wrapped in plastic is reminiscent of the Little Mermaid. The
fairy-tale universe established by the intertexts creates narrative consistency in
the fragmentary performances. We are experiencing what the literary scholar
Moritz Baßler describes in the following:

We have many cultural frames and scripts and we only need a small amount
of information to access them. We automatically complete the information
in the text according to certain cultural patterns and thus form our idea of
the narrative world and our expectations of what could happen next.
(Baßler 2011)

The performance does not create a diegesis of an innocent childhood, but rather
underlines the ambiguous character of the fairy tales. The naughty gestures of
the artists on the trapeze playing with Snow White’s apple refer not only to the
tale but also to Adam and Eve. Alice’s rabbit reminds us of Playboy Bunnies. The
artist’s instruction “Mouillez-moi [Make me wet]” turns the Little Mermaid’s per-
formance into a sexual act. The comfortable mattress of the Princess and the Pea
is replaced with a sharp nail bed. The semantic structure established by the per-
formance becomes visible in the intertextual references. The binary oppositions
of childhood and maturity, tenderness and violence, and naivety and knowledge
are simultaneously established and offer two different readings, either from the
perspective of the naïve child or the experienced adult.
One of the major principles of the performance is to cause the spectators to con-
tinuously switch between the two readings, never once leaving them in one of the
two universes. This result is reinforced by the use of camp. Sontag’s famous state-
ment from 1964 that “it’s good because it’s awful” (Sontag 2018) is the main aes-
thetic principle of the performance. The stage set is dominated by clashing green
shades, a kitschy chain of lights surrounding the electric guitar, and the use of nos-
talgic props such as forest-themed wallpaper, stuffed animals, and artificial flowers,
“things which, from a ‘serious’ point of view, are either bad art or kitsch” (Sontag
2018). Due to their theatrical and exaggerated staging, the stage can undoubtedly
be identified as camp, the “art that proposes itself seriously, but cannot be taken
4 Franziska Trapp

altogether seriously because it is ‘too much’” (Sontag 2018). The camp frame of the
performance offers a second principle that gives the otherwise fragmented perfor-
mance a thematic thread; it also underlines the need for another reading of all the
signs because camp “sees everything in quotation marks” (Sontag 2018).

Les Princesses acts as a meta-discourse on circus arts

How does this performance use the means of circus to create a double reading
involving the perspectives of the naïve child and the experienced adult? Entering
Cheptel Aleikoum’s “Medusa,” the audience is not only confronted with a fic-
tional universe but also a (ideal) circus space, which is marked by the (traditional)
ring and the visibility of the apparatuses and riggings. One might object that
the mere presence of circus props is insufficient to state self-referentiality, and I
would agree. In Les Princesses, however, the performance’s relation to the circus
genre is underlined in numerous ways. Even before entering the performance
space, the para-texts, such as the program booklet, announce the wish to create
a circus (!) performance, “For Les Princesses, I wanted a circus performance
with circus” (Cheptel Aleikoum 2016). Furthermore, the distribution of cotton
candy reminiscent of circuses and carnivals or the silver trays of liqueur bringing
to mind the traditional clowns who entertained spectators before the start of the
show ensure the activation of the “circus” frame. This is reinforced by the mere
fact that Les Princesses was being presented at an internationally recognized cir-
cus festival that is an important showcase of contemporary circus.
In this frame, the equilibrist wrapped in plastic is not only reminiscent of An-
dersen’s Little Mermaid but also of the traditional circus seals, which have become
one of the main cultural emblems associated with circus in the last decades. And
the bed of The Princess and the Pea is reminiscent of the famous traditional circus
act of “sawing a woman in half.” The pompous costumes not only present prin-
cesses and princes but also refer to the dresses of traditional circus. Alice’s rabbits
allude to traditional circus animals.
How is the self-referentiality of the performance connected to the dram-
aturgic principle of intertextuality? How is the camp aesthetic related to the
meta-discourse on circus arts? In what way does the self-referentiality of Les
Princesses oscillate between the perspective of the naïve child and the experi-
enced adult? The simultaneous staging of the fairy-tale universe and the circus
universe leads spectators to search for similarities and disparities between the
two. In contemplating the commonalities between circus and fairy tales, specta-
tors enter into the main discourses surrounding circus: its traditional heritage, its
cultural reception, and its contemporary aesthetics.

Circus as wonderland
By staging parallel fairy-tale and circus universes, Les Princesses portrays circus
as an alternative world and encourages the interpretation of circus as a place
 Introduction 5

where “everything is turned upside down” (Zipes 2015, 4). Contrary to Alice,
whose astonishment at the rabbit for having “a waistcoat-pocket, and a watch to
take out of it” led her into Wonderland, at the circus “audiences have an expec-
tation that circus … will surprise and excite” (Tait and Lavers 2016a, 6). This
characteristic of circus leads Paul Bouissac to his definition of the (traditional)
circus as a metacultural discourse: “Some of the cultural elements are combined
differently in the system of the circus than in corresponding everyday instances”
(Bouissac 1976, 8). Just like anything is possible in fairy tales, the possibilities of
circus are endless as well:

The rules of compatibility are transformed and often even inverted: at the
level of the decoding process, a horse makes a fool of his trainer; a tiger
rides an elephant (supposedly incompatible enemies are presented in im-
mediate conjunction); an elephant uses the telephone, plays music, or, like
man, eats dinner at a table; a clown produces incongruous sequences of
objects and behavior. Even the basic rules of balance are seemingly defied
or denied.
(Bouissac 1976, 8)

Circus and narration

Second, by placing the fairy-tale universe next to the circus universe, the
performance refers to the structure of traditional circus acts, which, accord-
ing to Bouissac, are quite similar to the canonical narrative structure of fairy
tales. By applying Vladimir Propp’s components of a tale to circus, Bouissac
explains:

As an act unfolds, we can identify progressive stages that closely resemble

the pattern of successive transformations that occur in folktales. The prin-
ciple stages … are:
1 Identification of the hero, who incidentally is often introduced as a
non-autochthon.
2 Qualifying test, which the artist considers a warm-up exercise.
3 Main test, which can consist of several tests presented in a variety of
sequences.
4 Glorifying test, which is usually precedent by a special announcement
and accompanied by a drum roll.
5 Public acknowledgment of the fulfillment of the task.
(Bouissac 1976, 25)

This Babylonian structure of traditional circus acts and programs is, in turn,
picked up by Les Princesses—not in terms of increasing difficulty of the task but
concerning the double reading: Each act begins as a (naïve) presentation of the
fairy-tale universe and gradually develops into a sexual act.
6 Franziska Trapp

Circus and its others

Next, the characters staged in Les Princesses greatly influence the oscillating
reception between circus and fairy-tale universe. The princesses and princes are
not only derived from fairy tales, but their exaggerated presentation (e.g., the
prince is wearing an oversized cape) reminds us of the “freaks” of traditional
circus performances, curiosity cabinets, and freak shows. The performance’s al-
lusion to folkloric fantasy (e.g., dwarfs, dragons, elves, fairies, giants, gnomes,
goblins, griffins, mermaids, talking animals, trolls, unicorns, witches) once again
reflects that circus was historically the “site for the celebration and exploitation of
differences.” (Fricker and Malouin 2018, 1)

Circus and children

As the audience enters the dome-shaped construction, they are served cotton
candy and drinks from liqueur glasses. From the very beginning, elements rem-
iniscent of childhood and maturity are presented side by side. Les Princesses im-
plicitly questions the discourse about circus audiences, their relation to children
and childhood, and the proximity to sex. American researcher Mark West writes
that circus was not always intended for children:

the lack of research into the history of circus audiences often leads to an
assumption that the nature of circus audiences has remained the same
throughout history. For instance … it is generally believed that children
have always been well represented. In reality, though, there is very little
evidence to substantiate such an assumption.
(West 1981, 265)

One of the many reasons for the lack of children at circuses was due to its repu-
tation as “immoral” (West 1981, 266). The same discourse is also recognizable
with regard to fairy tales. The Brothers Grimm, for instance, revised their fairy
tales to make them “more appropriate for children” by cleansing their narratives
of “erotic and bawdy passages” (Zipes 2015, 9).

Circus and Disney

Furthermore, I would like to draw attention to the fact that the references to
Disney, which are reinforced in the program booklet, establish yet another link
between fairy tales and circus. Zipes argues, “When we think of the form and
typical fairy tale today, we tend to think of a paradigmatic Grimms’ fairy tale
(quite often modified by the Disney industry)” (Zipes 2015, 13). Circus is cur-
rently experiencing a similar development, which has been fittingly termed a
“Walt-Disneyfication” (Leroux 2016, 5). Those unfamiliar with new and con-
temporary circus tend to associate it with the paradigmatic aesthetic of Cirque
du Soleil.
 Introduction 7

Circus, magic, myth, and reality

Lastly, Les Princesses links the notions of magic and myth intrinsically to circus
and fairy tales by staging the recipient’s expectations of what circus should be
and taking those myths of circus to their absurd limits. In our contemporary
society, the circus genre is confronted with preconceived (often irrevocable) no-
tions and prejudices. Circus is ubiquitous nowadays. “Not my circus, not my
monkeys” is part of our everyday language. In the times of Trump, The New York
Times criticized a “Foreign Policy Circus.” (New York Times Editorial Board
2017) Children’s picture books, toys, and clothes display circus images. Given
the omnipresence of circus in our contemporary culture, the organizers of the
international conference on circus research “Circus and its Others” held in 2015
concluded in their Call for Papers, “From Pink and Britney Spears’ stage shows
to American Horror Story … circus in the early twenty-first century has undeni-
ably gone mainstream.” (Batson et al. 2017) The unifying element of these ideas
of circus in the media—in literature, pop culture, music, and advertisement—is
their reference to the peak phase of traditional circus at the end of the nineteenth
century and beginning of the twentieth century. These portrayals generally dis-
regard the advancement of the traditional genre and the emergence of new and
contemporary circus. Even more, they are creating romanticized images of a
stagnant circus that has never actually existed and might even be contrary to
what new and contemporary circus declares itself to be: art.
In Les Princesses, the audience receives the expected codes and materials
comprised in the mainstream concepts of circus: animals (stuffed dears, rabbits),
the ring, a curtain (in mint green), fairground attractions such as can throwing,
a boxing ring, cotton candy, naked skin, risks, artistry, and so on, but always in
campy quotation marks. The company thereby stages the struggle of contempo-
rary circus to define itself. Is the genre based on a strong cultural heritage or is it
a free and independent artform? This struggle also appears in the discourse on the
distinction between high culture and popular culture: traditional circus has the
status of popular entertainment and contemporary circus is ambiguously located
somewhere between mainstream entertainment and art.
A double reading of all signs is required not only on the level of the fairy-tale
discourse but also on the level of self-referentiality. Les Princesses invites spec-
tators to enter into the discourse of circus reception and undermines the public’s
(stagnant) ideas by offering the possibility of a double reading. The performance’s
content and form reflect the contrasting features that have defined the genre until
today: the oscillation between childhood and adulthood, between mainstream
and otherness, between beauty and cruelty, between safety and risk, and between
entertainment and art.

Reality and fiction as dramaturgic principles

Erika Fischer-Lichte proclaims that “whenever and wherever theatre happens, it is
characterized by a tension between reality and fiction” (Fischer-Lichte 2008, 84).
8 Franziska Trapp

Though the transgression of the fictional and the real is not easily identifiable as
a specific dramaturgic principle in Les Princesses, I argue that the intertwining
of reality and fiction is a feature unique to (contemporary) circus, in general,
and even enhanced in Les Princesses by the dramaturgic procedure of the per-
formance. This hypothesis is explained by means of the first act, “The Cloud
Swing.” After being kissed by a spectator, a female artist in a white dress guides
her savior to a throne above the audience’s entrance and begins swinging on the
cloud swing. While doing her tricks, she continues to make eye contact with the
exposed spectator.
On the narrative level, this act can be read like a fairy tale: the focus is on the
“character body” (Hurley 2016, 124), through which we see the princess courting
the favor of her savior. This reading is emphasized by the intertextual references
to Sleeping Beauty, where the prince’s kiss eventually leads to the marriage of the
two main characters. On the narrative level, the recipient easily recognizes the
cloud swing act as the story’s predictable outcome. Craver defines the character
body as the entirety of “gestures and expressions of the actor that signify the life
and experience of a fictional character within a fictional world” (Graver 2005,
159). Due to the omnipresence of intertextual references that create a cohesive
fairy tale universe, the narrative level or the fictional level is strongly emphasized
by the overall performance.
In this story, though, the recipient also sees a circus act, the cloud swing, and
the “real, phenomenal body” (Fischer-Lichte 2008, 84). This material level of
performance is part of all performative genres, “for it is always real spaces where
performances take place, it is always real time that the performance consumes,
and there are always real bodies which move in and through the real spaces”
(Fischer-Lichte 2008, 84). In circus, this level is enhanced by the existence of
an aesthetics of risk, which comprises frequent unpredictable and unforeseeable
elements. In this context, the aesthetics of risk is not based on the fact that per-
formers are actually taking risks, but on “the belief that circus performance is
dangerous—or more dangerous than high-impact sports…. The actual physical
risks are usually not apparent” (Tait 2016, 529). Thus, the performance activates
the recipient’s culturally established frames and scripts of circus, causing them to
expect risk-taking behaviors, even if they have never seen a circus performance
before. In Les Princesses, the activation of this script is ensured by the continuous
indication of the performance’s affiliation to the circus genre. And the staging of
risk is enhanced by several means: In the cloud swing act, the risk is especially
enhanced through the sounds of whooping and wooing. Later on, an actual risk
is created when a spectator is asked to pull on a rope that an artist is climbing
without safety lines on the high structure of the “Medusa.” In a sense, the spec-
tator is actually responsible for the artist’s life.
Apart from the activation of the circus frame and the staging of actual physical
risk, the performance engages the audience in order to underline the performa-
tive level. In the first act, the spectator becomes part of the narrative story, that
 Introduction 9

is, the prince, which we recognize through the intertextual reference. Since the
spectator is not wearing a costume or acting, his real presence is emphasized. This
dramaturgic principle is repeated several times throughout the performance. The
equilibrist does tricks on the spectator’s legs, the artists run through the audito-
rium, and spectators are asked to throw balls at them in order to establish a kind of
snowball fight. By including the audience, the performance becomes a live event.
Applying the camp aesthetic, moreover, the artists stage their characters with
a twinkle in their eyes. Thus, as the artist pleasurably whoops while doing tricks
on the swinging rope, we are deprived of being able to “believe” the staged story.
The recipient always sees artist Marie Jolet and the staged character (the princess)
at the same time. This effect is enhanced by the fact that the artists address each
other by their actual names.
Lastly, I would like to draw attention to the significance of proximity between
artist and spectator in this performance. The audiences’ seats are right next to the
small ring, the swinging rope is installed close to the ground, and the equilibrist’s
tricks are almost literally performed on the nose of the spectators. This dramatur-
gical choice—made by the company in order to heighten the spectacular aspect
and bring the artists as close as possible to the audience—highlights the technical
aspect of the staged disciplines. The technical research not only adds a further
meta-discourse to the circus discipline but also underlines the performative level.
This procedure is repeated several times. By wrapping of the equilibrist’s legs in
plastic, the performance refers not only to mermaids and seals but also makes the
linear aesthetics of the equilibrist visible. Consequently, Les Princesses reinforces
the narrative level or fiction just as much as the performative level or reality,
and hence draws attention to the special procedure fundamental to all (new and
contemporary) circus performances: spectators simultaneously worry about and
admire the artists and follow the narration of the performance.

Les Princesses—a dramaturgy of self-referentiality?

Dramaturgy is a way of conceiving the world, a certain way of organizing
reality and imposing a reading lens on the spectator. It is a reading of the
world, always in connection to the world. All art functions and articulates
three poles: dramaturgy is in the middle in between those three poles: the
artist, the medium (its history, its motivation), the society it interferes with
(the context it interferes in).
(Vanhaesebrouck 2018, 4)

I would like to conclude this performance analysis by taking a position on a

potential question. In what way does the dramaturgy of Les Princesses fulfill
the demands of scholar and dramaturge Karel Vanhaesebrouck on art? Is Les
Princesses able to balance between the three poles of artist, medium, and soci-
ety? Due to the analysis’ focus on self-referentiality, one might object that the
10 Franziska Trapp

performance focuses mainly on the medium and neglects the other two poles.
Vanhaesebrouck continues:

A balance between these three poles is necessary, the excess of one of the
poles leads to deviation: the excess of the actor-artist pole leads to narcis-
sism; the excess of the medium pole leads to self-reference, and the excess
of the society pole leads to the instrumentalization of art.
(Vanhaesebrouck 2018, 4)

But this is not the case. Throughout the performance, the critical analysis of what
is left of the stories and tales of our childhood when we grow old remains the fo-
cus, both with regard to the identity of the artists (growing “old” as an artist) and
the value of this question within society (feminism, stereotypes, etc.). Therefore,
the balance between the poles is intact. Les Princesses uniquely uses the means of
circus as a main dramaturgic principle on two levels: as a meta-discourse on the
circus arts and to portray the reality and fiction intrinsic to circus performances.
As mentioned, the self-referential elements of this performance should not
be read as a “homage to circus.” My analysis also does not declare the perfor-
mance’s affiliation to the genre because of the general unfamiliarity of society
with new and contemporary circus despite its fifty years of existence. Rather,
self-referentiality is a method to establish a consistent universe and stimulate nar-
rative frames through circus despite using theatrical means. Due to the conscious
use and continuous conjunction, this procedure of meaning constitution is quite
successful. Les Princesses offers spectators entry into a world where theater and
circus intermingle, alongside music and movement, the interaction between per-
formers and audiences, and presentation and representation. This combination
constitutes meaning in a successful work of contemporary circus art.

State of the art of circus studies

To conclude, I would now like to examine this performance analysis’s place in the
field of international circus research. My analysis is only one possible perspective
on circus performances. By focusing on structures and meaning constitution, it
was conducted through the lens of cultural poetics, semiotics, and theater studies.
Other approaches to such performances could utilize, for instance, scholarship
in dance studies to attain a deeper understanding of how the movements used in
Les Princesses create meaning. Further inquiries might also involve economists
focusing on the production costs of the performance. The performance could
also be interpreted through the lens of anthropology or sociology in which the
lives of the artist collective Cheptel Aleikoum, which differs from other circus
companies, could become the research focus. Education sciences might be inter-
ested, for instance, in the collective’s teaching methods. Medical scholars could
study the corporal state of the performer’s bodies; neuroscientists could conduct
research on the neuronal activity of the artists.
 Introduction 11

As you can see, circus research is extremely interdisciplinary. Both empirical

methods and research methods for the humanities can be used to deepen our
knowledge of the genre. Hence, the interdisciplinary approaches are not isolated
but contribute to the same academic discourses. At this time, research on circus
dramaturgy, circus and otherness, circus and identity, women in circus, circus
semiotics, circus and education, social circus, and circus and profession are most
canonical. Furthermore, circus research is extremely international, which be-
comes apparent when we take a look at the numerous circus conferences organ-
ized over the last eight years.2 The interdisciplinary and international character
of circus has been outlined in three recently published anthologies on circus
research, which explore circus in a very general manner: The Routledge Circus
Studies Reader (Tait and Lavers 2016b); Cirque Global. Quebec’s Expanding Circus
Boundaries (Leroux and Batson 2016); and The Cambridge Companion to the Circus
(Arrighi and Davis 2021). Just as much as the present anthology, these volumes
have brought together an international group of established and emerging schol-
ars working across circus studies. The main aim of this book is to contribute to
the international and interdisciplinary discussions3 by exploring contemporary
circus meaning, practice and culture.

360° circus: Meaning. Practice. Culture.

The chapters of this anthology consist of presentations, conversations, and col-
laborations on the circus arts that were selected from conferences organized in
the frame of Zirkus|Wissenschaft.4 Focusing on circus meaning, practice, and
culture in three different sections, 360° Circus provides an elucidated view on
the genre as a relevant object of research for cultural studies. The first section,
“Circus Meaning,” discusses how and under which conditions meaning is pro-
duced and transmitted in traditional, new, and contemporary circus. The second
section, “Circus Practice,” explores how the analysis of circus performances can
be used during the creation process itself and how circus practitioners position
themselves and their artform with regard to processes of meaning creation. The
third section, “Circus Culture,” examines the societal impact of circus and its
relevance in contemporary society. 360° is intended to be a visualization of its
object of analysis—the circus, for which its original performance space has been
eponymous—as well as a symbol of the multidisciplinary and international per-
spectives on circus. The anthology welcomes different voices, viewpoints, and
styles, ranging from “classical” academic chapters to interviews, graphic record-
ings, and artistic contributions.

Circus meaning
The traditional circus code is no longer constitutive of the evolving new circus.
The artists of the contemporary genre are no longer sprouts from circus fami-
lies but graduates of state-recognized circus schools, animals have been mostly
12 Franziska Trapp

banished from programs, and the tent is no longer the exclusive performance
space. The new circus performances are based on traditional circus disciplines
(acrobatics, object manipulation, and clownery) and are supplemented by theat-
rical and choreographic elements. Its goal is no longer to underline the extraordi-
nary ability of the artist and the particularity of the tricks by using a Babylonian
structure, which sketches the elements according to difficulty, but rather to re-
spond to current social and political issues, to create art, and to narrate. There-
fore, the fundamental process of meaning creation in circus is changing.
With this paradigm shift comes the challenge of clearly differentiating circus
from other artforms and the internal classification of circus subgenres, for exam-
ple, traditional, new, and contemporary circus. While the etymological origin
of the word “circus,” which means “circle” or “ring,” fits the definition of tradi-
tional circus, the notion is stretched to its limit as soon as we take a look at new
and contemporary circus performances, which are presented not only in big tops
but also in theaters and in the streets. Also, with regard to the use of apparatuses,
the differentiation between circus and other artforms becomes difficult. In con-
temporary circus, a qualified juggler might or might not use classical juggling
material when juggling and they might or might not use signs that evoke classi-
cal juggling. For instance, in the first chapter, French circus expert Jean-Michel
Guy refers to Phia Menard’s performance “Vortex,” which, according to him,
visualizes the formal openness of contemporary circus performances. According
to Guy, Menard’s performance is not circus; in fact, it is not even juggling. At
the same time, it is neither dance nor theater. Faced with the patchwork nature
of contemporary circus, Guy’s attempt to define traditional, new, and contempo-
rary circus ends with the provocative statement, “Circus does not exist!”
The paradigm shift not only influences ontological questions but also reflec-
tions on dramaturgy. In Chapter 2, Veronika Štefanová offers a short excursus
into Cirk La Putyka and the debut of the now internationally renowned Czech
contemporary performance “La Putyka”: While focusing on the relation between
theater and circus, the description of the performance invites one to discover the
dramaturgical shift from theater to contemporary circus, which is fundamental
for the Czech context.

Circus practice
In this section, former trapeze artist Sandy Sun outlines the ruptures between
traditional and new circus aesthetics in an interview. Telling her own biograph-
ical story, she impressively explains how a serious accident during her high-level
career forced her to develop a new, contemporary style on the trapeze. This
chapter not only provides an autobiographic view of the development of circus,
but also reminds us of the fact that circus is much more than its final product: the
performance itself.
It must be taken into account that artists spend significantly more time train-
ing and creating a performance, which lasts only one or two hours, than they
 Introduction 13

actually spend performing. Hence, there should be a focus on the creative process
in circus studies; training and individual artistic biographies are similarly inter-
esting. As Swedish scholar Camilla Damkjaer states in her chapter, “I propose
that we need to look at circus and each circus discipline not only as a perfor-
mance but as practice.” In “The Circus Body Articulating,” she applies the theo-
ries of Deleuze and Guattari to examine the practice of hand-balancing.
Not only in academia but also on the circus scene itself, the focus on circus
as a practice has become much more relevant. In the performance “Extreme
Symbiosis,” the two hand-to-hand Swedish acrobats Louise Von Euler Bjurholm
and Henrik Agger examine their discipline on a more intimate level. What is the
nature of their practice? Bjurholm and Agger depict, discuss, and problematize
the discipline of pair acrobatics from their perspective as practitioners.
In “Hamlet: To Have Written or Not to Have Written for the Tightwire,” di-
rector, playwright, and researcher Louis Patrick Leroux offers a new perspective.
His chapter calls to mind his process for creating “Hamlet on the Wire,” a short
performance straddling theater, contemporary circus, and sound installation. To
adapt this iconic play to contemporary circus, he found himself negotiating mul-
tiple artistic roles and wrestling with the very notion of writing and authorship,
given that text, textuality, and texture became embodied in physical prowess.
Searching for balance and waltzing between hesitation and redemptive risk, the
piece presented Hamlet as a tightwire walker, artist, and researcher.
“To rise, to stand, to move: no movement is performed without involving
gravity, without a dialogue with gravity.” This explanation of choreographer,
pedagogue, and emblematic figure of buto dance Ushio Amagatsu is the point of
departure for French performing arts scholar Agathe Dumont, who focuses on
the role of gravity in circus. Dumont conducts interviews with circus artists and
circus teachers in order to examine how verticality and gravity are perceived by
the artists themselves and in terms of movement analysis.
In the chapter “Reading Circus. Dramaturgy on the Border of Art and Aca-
demia,” I write about the dialogue between art and science, practices (academic
and artistic), knowledges (academic and artistic), and traditions (academic and
artistic). I discuss a research project I directed in 2019 entitled “Reading Circus”:
Artists of the Tall Tales Company were invited to the University of Münster,
Germany, to collaborate with students of the graduate program Cultural Poetics
of Literature and Media. Both groups worked together to read circus as a dram-
aturgical praxis. The chapter investigates the advantages of applying a cultural-­
poetic reading of contemporary circus to the creative process.

Circus culture
The final section of the book spotlights the cultural, sociological, and political
dimensions of the circus arts. The notion of culture in the section’s title is thereby
understood in a broad sense, including a focus on expressive cultural practices, in-
tertextual references, contemporary political discourses, transformative powers,
14 Franziska Trapp

and political changes. Focusing on the circus trick, researcher and dramaturge
Sebastian Kann provocatively questions the political potential of circus practice:

Circus artists are proud of their ‘signature tricks’ which function as their
calling-cards and prove their uniqueness, but on some level these tricks are
all the same insofar as they are all used as markers of the body’s commodity-­
value, and all produce more or less the same feeling in a spectator: awe.

Kann proclaims that the very notion of the “trick” must shift if circus is to be
taken seriously as an expressive practice.
“Chaplin, Brecht, Fo: Toward a Concept of ‘Epic Clowning,’” written by
Gaia Vimercati, deals with the clown, which is understood as the converging
point of several artistic tendencies, culturally specific factors, and personal rein-
terpretations rooted in the tradition of the Middle Ages. Taking Brecht’s concept
of the epic theater as a theoretical framework, this chapter discusses the ways in
which the works of Charlie Chaplin and Dario Fo provide a style of clowning
that differs from their predecessors.
In “To Walk the Tightwire,” tightwire performer and researcher Ante Ursić
views the tightwire artist as a symbol of modernity. Based on the theory of Peter
Sloterdijk, Ursic examines how two tightwire acts—“Grand Canyon Crossing”
by Nik Wallenda and “Twin Tower Crossing” by Philippe Petit—illuminate
crucial questions of western modernity: paradoxes of individual freedom, terri-
torial and spatial conquest, and the role of the artist and audience.
The political dimension of circus acts is also analyzed by Australian researcher
Kristy Seymour. In “The Spatiality of Australian Contemporary Circus,” she
explores how contemporary circus as an artform transforms or changes the social
coding of the spaces it occupies. She thereby focuses on circus performances from
the Australian sector: “Gravity and other Myths” and “The Garden of Unearthly
Delights.”
This anthology concludes with the question of mood: While staging a cheer-
ful mood has been fundamental to the success of traditional circus, recent circus
and its music offer a far wider range of moods, including that of melancholy.
How do such moods create connections to recent political spaces within culture?
This question is raised by Peta Tait, professor of theater and drama at La Trobe
University in Australia and copublisher of the anthology The Routledge Circus
Studies Reader (Tait and Lavers 2016b).

360° circus: an invitation to find new directions in academia

Our heads are round so our thoughts can change direction.
Francis Picabia
(Umland et al. 2016)

Not only with regard to internationality and multidisciplinarity, the notion 360°
is eponymous for the present anthology. Within circus research, the necessity of
 Introduction 15

a continual exchange between science and praxis requires a change of thinking

regarding the presentation of academic discussion and findings. At the interna-
tional conference on circus research “UpSideDown—Circus and Space” (2017),
Leroux proclaimed, “A space for circus research must be a space for sharing
knowledge and expertise between scholars and practitioners. It must be a space
to enrich the discourse but also to contribute to the practice” (Leroux 2017). The
research project Zirkus|Wissenschaft reflects this ambitious aim, which is why this
volume welcomes different viewpoints ranging from the “classical” academic
chapter to interviews and artistic contributions. This anthology also showcases
the graphic recordings that were produced during “UpSideDown” in order to
capture the key messages of the presenters and ongoing discussions in words
and pictures, thus making the academic discourses accessible to a wider public.
These recordings have been transformed into an academic graphic novel titled
UpSideDown—Circus and Space (Kluth and Trapp 2017), which is a visual entry
into the main academic discourses on the circus arts. 360° Circus can be read as its
academic counterpart. It is an invitation to deepen our knowledge of the circus
arts and its meaning, practice, and culture and to dive into academic procedures
and findings. This anthology is an invitation to turn our heads upside down:
“Curiouser and Curiouser!” (Carroll 2013, 9).

Notes
1 The analysis is based on Trapp 2020a, 160–176 (in German) and Trapp 2020b,
183-197 (in French).
2 Some of the conferences focused on the art of circus from academic and theoretical
perspectives, as for example:
“Semiotics of the Circus” (2015) University of Münster, Germany
“UpSideDown—Circus and Space” (2017) University of Münster, Germany
“Circus and Its Others I” (2016) Concordia University, Montréal
“Circus and Its Others II” (2018) Charles University, Prague
“Circus and Its Others III” (2021) University of California, Davis
“Cirque et approches comparées” (2018) organized in Marseille by the Collectif des
chercheurs sur le cirque (CCCirque)
“Cinquième Semaine du Cirque” (2020), Ecrire L’histoire du Cirque as a collabo-
ration between the Université Paul Valéry, Montpellier III and the Université Libre
de Bruxelles.
Others focused on the relations between professionals, artists, and spectators, as for
example:
“CARD II—Circus on the Edge” (2015) Stockholm University of the Arts
“Circus and Identity” (2016) Festival Novog Cirkusa, Zagreb
“Think Circus!” (2017, 2022) organized by Circus Next, Paris
And circus’ reception and transfer in different media were for example analyzed at
“Literarische Manegenkünste” (2016) University of Marburg, Germany and “Image-
ries et imaginaires du cirque” (2022) University of Rouen, France.
3 Circus researchers are working at different universities all over the world. Projects
such as the recently founded CARP, a collaboration between several international
circus documentation centers, aim at establishing institutionalized networks to con-
nect individual researchers and strengthen collaborations between scholars. This is
also the case for research networks such as for example:
YOUR|Circus. Young Researchers Network in Circus Studies
16 Franziska Trapp

The Montreal Working Group on Circus Research

CCCirque
Cirque: histoire, imaginaires, pratiques|RIRRA 21 at the University of Montpellier.
The present anthology is the result of the activities of the research project Zirkus-
|Wissenschaft, which I established in 2015.
4 At the beginning of March 2017, the ARD Campus Magazine announced “the eight
things one knows when studying at the University of Münster: There are more than
280 study programs in Münster. And in addition to such classics as pedagogy, busi-
ness administration, and law, there are also a few very special things: cultural poetics,
for example, with circus research as a subcategory” (ARD Campus Magazin). The
project Zirkus|Wissenschaft currently based at the Freie University Berlin and the
Université libre de Bruxelles seeks to anchor circus as a relevant object of research
for cultural studies in university research and coursework. The establishment of a
circus studies section in the library as well as regularly held seminars and excursions
for graduate students encourages and initiates research projects about this genre. It
explicitly aims at establishing a long-term international meeting place for circus re-
searchers and to set up an interdisciplinary network. Important milestones include
the biennial conferences in collaboration with local cultural operators, the support of
network projects such as CARP, which was initiated at the second international con-
ference “UpSideDown—Circus and Space,” the initiation of the Young Research-
ers Network in Circus Studies, the implementation of a section Theater, Dance &
­Circus in the German Association for Semiotics, the realization of projects in research
communication such as UpSideDown—Traveling Exhibtion and UpSideDown—­Academic
Graphic Novel. Another recent project about the collaboration between theory and
practice was filmed in the documentary Reading Circus. Dramaturgy on the Border
­between Art and Academia (Benda Film Productions 2019).

References
Arrighi, Gillian and Jim Davis. 2021. The Cambridge Companion to the Circus. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Baßler, Moritz. 2011. Populärer Realismus. In Kommunikation im Populären. In In-
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 Introduction 17

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Introduction
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