A circus is commonly a travelling company of performers that
may include
clowns,
acrobats, trained animals,
trapeze
acts, musicians,
hoopers,
tightrope walkers,
jugglers,
unicyclists and other stunt-oriented artists. The word also
describes the performance that they give, which is usually a series of
acts choreographed to music and introduced by a
ringmaster. A traditional circus performance is normally held in a
ring 13 m (42 ft) in diameter. This dimension was adopted by
Philip Astley to enable a horse rider to stand upright on a
cantering horse to perform a series of acrobatic maneuvers and to more
easily retain their balance. Most modern circuses have a system of
tiered seating around the ring for the public and since the late 19th
early 20th century the performance has taken place under canvas and more
recently plastic tents commonly called "The Big Top" .
Etymology
First attested in English 14th century, the word circus
derives from
Latin circus,[1]
which is the
romanization of the
Greek κίρκος (kirkos), itself a
metathesis of the
Homeric Greek κρίκος (krikos), meaning "circle" or
"ring".[2]
Early Christian writer
Tertullian claims that the first circus games were staged by goddess
Circe in
honour of her father
Helios,
the Sun god.[3]
This claim accords well with the fact that many Roman games were indeed
dedicated to the Sun god.
History
Origin
In Ancient Rome, the circus was a building for the exhibition of
horse and chariot races, equestrian shows, staged battles, displays
featuring trained animals, jugglers and acrobats. The circus of Rome is
thought to have been influenced by the Greeks, with chariot racing and
the exhibition of animals as traditional attractions. The Roman circus
consisted of tiers of seats running parallel with the sides of the
course, and forming a crescent around one of the ends. The lower seats
were reserved for persons of rank; there were also various state boxes,
e.g. for the giver of the games and his friends. In Ancient Rome the
circus was the only public spectacle at which men and women were not
separated.
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 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.[4]
Next in importance to the Circus Maximus in Rome were the
Circus Flaminius and the
Circus Neronis, from the notoriety which it obtained through the
Circensian pleasures of Nero. A fourth, the
Circus of Maxentius, was constructed by
Maxentius; the ruins of this circus have helped archaeologists to
reconstruct the Roman circus.
For some time after the fall of Rome, Europe lacked a large and
animal-rich circus. Itinerant showmen travelled the fairgrounds of
Europe. Animal trainers and performers are thought to have exploited the
nostalgia for the Roman circus, travelling between towns and performing
at local fairs. Another possible link between the Roman and modern
circus could have been bands of
Gypsies who appeared in Europe in the 14th century and in Britain
from the 15th century, bringing with them circus skills and trained
animals.[citation
needed]
Development
The modern concept of a circus as a circular arena surrounded by
tiers of seats, for the exhibition of equestrian, acrobatic and other
performances seems to have existed since the late 18th century.[5]
The popularity of the circus in England may be traced to that held by
Philip Astley in London.[6]
The first performance of his circus is said to have been held on January
9, 1768. One of Astley's major contributions to the circus was bringing
trick horse-riding into a ring, though Astley referred to it as the
Circle. Later, to suit equestrian acts moving from one circus to
another, the diameter of the circus ring was set at 42 ft (13 m), which
is the size of ring needed for horses to circle comfortably at full
gallop. When Astley added tumblers, tightrope-walkers, jugglers,
performing dogs, and a clown to fill time between his own
demonstrations, he created a modern circus.[7][8]
Astley never called his performances a 'circus'; that title was thought
up by
Charles Dibdin, who in partnership with Astley's rival Charles
Hughes, opened the Royal Circus on 4 November 1782, a short
distance from
Astley's 'Amphitheatre of Equestrian Arts' in Lambeth, London.[9][10]
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
Henglers and Sangers 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
have been produced with an extraordinary wealth of realistic display. 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.[11][12]
Astley leased his Parisian circus to the Italian
Antonio Franconi in 1793.[13]
Trapeze artists, in lithograph by Calvert Litho. Co.,
1890
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 came over from England in 1792 to establish his
first circus in
Philadelphia. The first circus building in the US opened on April 3,
1793 in Philadelphia, where Ricketts gave America's first complete
circus performance.[7][14]
George Washington attended a performance there later that season.[15]
In the Americas of 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,[16]
was the first American to operate a major circus in the United States.[17]
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 probably the most famous circus and clown pre-Civil War,
popularizing such expressions as "The One-Horse Show" and "Hey,
Rube!". The American circus was revolutionized by
P. T. Barnum and
William Cameron Coup, who launched
P. T. Barnum's Museum, Menagerie & Circus, a travelling combination
of animal and human oddities, the exhibition of humans as a
freak show or
sideshow was thus an American invention. Coup was also the first
circus entrepreneur to use
circus trains to transport the circus from town to town; a practice
that continues today and introduced the first multiple ringed circuses.
Circus parade around tents, in lithograph by Gibson & Co.,
1874.
In 1840 the equestrian
Thomas Cooke returned to England from the United States, bringing
with him a circus tent. At this time, itinerant circuses 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
Southhampton.
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.[18]
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.[19][20]
Three important circus innovators were Italian
Giuseppe Chiarini, and Frenchmen
Louis Soullier and
Jacques Tourniaire, whose early travelling circuses introduced the
circus to Latin America, Australia, South East 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.
Following Barnum's death his circus merged with that of
James Anthony Bailey, and travelled to Europe as The Barnum & Bailey
Greatest Show On Earth where it toured from 1897 to 1902, impressing
other circus owners with its large scale, its touring techniques
including the tent and circus train and the combination of circus acts,
zoological exhibition and the freak show. This format was adopted by
European circuses at the turn of the 20th century.
The influence of the American circus brought about a considerable
change in the character of the modern circus. In arenas too large for
speech to be easily audible, the traditional comic dialog of the clown
assumed a less prominent place than formerly, while the vastly increased
wealth of stage properties relegated to the background the old-fashioned
equestrian feats, which were replaced by more ambitious acrobatic
performances, and by exhibitions of skill, strength and daring,
requiring the employment of immense numbers of performers and often of
complicated and expensive machinery.
Lion tamer, in lithograph by Gibson & Co., 1873.
In 1919, Lenin, head of the USSR, expressed a wish for the circus to
become 'the people's art-form', given facilities and status on a par
with theatre, opera and ballet. The USSR nationalized Russian circuses.
In 1927 the State University of Circus and Variety Arts, better known as
the Moscow Circus School was established where performers were trained
using methods developed from the Soviet gymnastics program. When the
Moscow State Circus company began international tours in the 1950s, its
levels of originality and artistic skill were widely applauded, and the
high standard of the Russian State circus continues to this day.
Circuses from
China,
drawing on Chinese
traditions of
acrobatics, like the
Chinese State Circus are also popular touring acts. The
International Circus Festival of Monte-Carlo[21]
has been held in
Monte Carlo since 1974 and was the first of many international
awards for circus performers. From the late 19th century through the
first half of the 20th, travelling circuses were a major form of
spectator entertainment in the US and attracted huge attention whenever
they arrived in a city. After WWII however, the popularity of the circus
declined when new forms of entertainment such as TV arrived and the
public's tastes became more sophisticated. Also from the 1960s onward,
circuses attracted growing criticism from animal rights activists. Some
circuses stayed afloat by merging with other circus companies. However a
good number of old-fashioned travelling circuses with their usual
mixture of acrobat, clown and animal acts are still active in various
parts of the world ranging from shoestring small family enterprises to
the three ring extravaganzas like
Vazquez Hermanos Circus in Mexico.[22]
Other companies found new ways to draw in the public with innovative new
approaches to the circus form itself.
Contemporary types
Contemporary circus (originally known as nouveau cirque) is a
recent performing arts movement that originated in the 1970s in
Australia,
Canada,
France,
the
West Coast of the United States, and the
United Kingdom. Contemporary circus combines traditional circus
skills and theatrical techniques to convey a story or theme. Compared
with the traditional circus, the contemporary 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. For
aesthetic or economic reasons, contemporary circus productions may
sometimes be staged in theatres rather than in large outdoor tents.
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 appear less frequently in
contemporary circus than in traditional circus.
Early examples of nouveau cirque companies include:
Circus Oz, forged in
Australia in 1978 from SoapBox Circus and New Circus, both founded
in the early 1970s; the
Pickle Family Circus, founded in
San Francisco in 1975;
Ra-Ra
Zoo in the UK in 1983,
Nofit State Circus in 1984 from
Wales;
Cirque du Soleil, founded in
Quebec
in 1984; and
Archaos
in 1986. More recent examples include:
Teatro ZinZanni, founded in Seattle in 1998; Quebec's
Cirque Éloize; Les 7 doigts de la main (also known as The 7
Fingers);[23]
and the West African Circus Baobab[24]
in the late 1990s. The genre includes other circus troupes such as the
Vermont-based
Circus Smirkus (founded in 1987 by
Rob
Mermin), Le Cirque Imaginaire (later renamed Le Cirque Invisible,
both founded and directed by
Victoria Chaplin, daughter of
Charlie Chaplin), the
Tiger Lillies, Dislocate,[25]
and Vulcana Women's Circus,[26]
while
The Jim Rose Circus is an interesting take on the
sideshow. Swedish contemporary circus company
Cirkus Cirkör was founded in 1995. U.S. Company PURE Cirkus[27]
was founded in the subgenre of "cirque noir" in 2004, and in
Northern England, (United Kingdom), Skewed Circus[28]
combines punk, rap, dance music, comedy, and stunts to deliver
"pop-circus" entertainment to young urban audiences.
The most conspicuous success story in the contemporary genre has been
that of
Cirque du Soleil, the Canadian circus company whose estimated annual
revenue now exceeds US$810 million,[29]
and whose nouveau cirque shows have been seen by nearly
90 million spectators in over 200 cities on five continents.[30]
Despite the contemporary circus' shift toward more theatrical techniques
and its emphasis on human rather than animal performance, traditional
circus companies still exist alongside the new movement. Numerous
circuses continue to maintain animal performers, including
Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus,
UniverSoul Circus, and the
Big Apple Circus from the United States,
Circus Krone from Munich,
Circus Royale and
Lennon Bros Circus from Australia,
Vazquez Hermanos Circus, Circo Atayde Hermanos, and Hermanos Mayaror
Circus[31]
from Mexico, and
Moira Orfei Circus[32]
from Italy, to name just a few.
Performance
Fire breathers risk burns, both internal and external,
as well as poisoning in the pursuit of their art.
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
brass instruments, drums,
glockenspiel, and sometimes the distinctive sound of the
calliope.
Acts
Common acts include a variety of
acrobatics,
gymnastics (including
tumbling and
trampoline), aerial acts (such as
trapeze,
aerial silk,
corde lisse),
contortion,
stilts
and a variety of other routines.
Juggling is one of the most common acts in a circus; the combination
of juggling and gymnastics is called
equilibristics and include acts like
plate spinning and the
rolling globe. Acts like these are the some of the most common, and
the most traditional.
Clowns
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 circus clowns have included
Austin Miles, the
Fratellini Family,
Emmett Kelly,
Grock and
Bill Irwin.
Daredevil
stunt acts and
sideshow acts are also parts of some circus acts, these activities
may include
human cannonball,
chapeaugraphy,
fire eating,
breathing and
dancing,
knife throwing,
magic shows,
sword swallowing or
strongman. Famous sideshow performers include
Zip the Pinhead and
The Doll Family. A popular sideshow attraction from the early 19th
century was the
flea circus, where fleas were attached to props and viewed through a
Fresnel lens.
Animal acts
A variety of animals have historically been used in acts. While the
types of animals used vary from circus to circus,
big cats,
elephants,
horses,
birds,
sea lions,
bears and domestic animals are the most common.
The earliest involvement of animals in circus was just the display of
exotic creatures. 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.[33]
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.[17]
Mabel Stark was a famous female tiger-tamer.
Controversy
Animal welfare groups have documented many cases of
animal cruelty in the training of performing circus animals.[34][35]
The
animal rights group
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) contends that
animals in circuses are frequently beaten into submission and that
physical abuse has always been the method for training circus animals.
According to PETA, although the US
Animal Welfare Act does not permit the use of electric shock prods,
whips, hooks, or similar instruments by trainers,[36]
these are still used today.[37]
According to PETA, during an undercover investigation of Carson & Barnes
Circus, video footage was captured showing animal care director Tim
Frisco training endangered Asian elephants with electrical shock prods
and instructing other trainers to "beat the elephants with a
bullhook as hard as they could and to sink the sharp metal bullhook
into the animals' flesh and twist it until they screamed in pain."[37]
In testimony in
U.S. District Court in 2009,
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus CEO
Kenneth Feld acknowledged that circus elephants are struck behind
the ears, under the chin and on their legs with metal tipped prods,
called bull hooks. Feld stated that these practices are necessary to
protect circus workers. Feld also acknowledged that an elephant trainer
was reprimanded for using an electric shock device, known as a hot shot
or electric prod, on an elephant, which Feld also stated was appropriate
practice. Feld denied that any of these practices harm elephants.[38]
In its January 2010 verdict on the case, brought against Feld
Entertainment International by the American Society for the Prevention
of Cruelty to Animals 'et al.', the Court ruled that evidence against
the circus company was "not credible with regard to the allegations".[39]
In lieu of a
USDA hearing,
Feld Entertainment Inc. (parent of Ringling Bros.) agreed to pay an
unprecedented $270,000 fine for violations of the Animal Welfare Act
that allegedly occurred between June 2007 and August 2011.[40]
On February 1, 1992 at the Great American Circus in
Palm Bay, Florida, an elephant named Janet (1965 – February 1, 1992)
went berserk while giving a ride to a mother, her two children and three
other children. The elephant then stampeded through the circus grounds
outside before being shot to death by police.[41]
Also, during a Circus International performance in
Honolulu, Hawaii on 20 August 1994, an elephant called
Tyke (1974 – August 20, 1994) killed her trainer,
Allen Campbell, and severely mauled her groomer, Dallas Beckwith, in
front of hundreds of horrified spectators. Tyke then bolted from the
arena and ran through the streets of
Kakaako
for more than thirty minutes. Police fired 86 shots at Tyke who
eventually collapsed from the wounds and died.[42]
In 1998 in the UK, a parliamentary working group chaired by MP
Roger Gale studied living conditions and treatment of animals in UK
circuses. All members of this group agreed that a change in the law was
needed to protect circus animals. Mr Gale told the BBC, "It's
undignified and the conditions under which they are kept are woefully
inadequate—the cages are too small, the environments they live in are
not suitable and many of us believe the time has come for that practice
to end." The group reported concerns about boredom and stress, and noted
that an independent study by a member of the
Wildlife Conservation Research Unit at
Oxford University "found no evidence that circuses contribute to
education or conservation."[43]
However, in 2007 a different working group under the UK
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, having reviewed
information from experts representing both the circus industry and
animal welfare, found an absence of "scientific evidence sufficient to
demonstrate that travelling circuses are not compatible with meeting the
welfare needs of any type of non-domesticated animal presently being
used in the United Kingdom." According to that group's report, published
in October 2007, "there appears to be little evidence to demonstrate
that the welfare of animals kept in travelling circuses is any better or
any worse than that of animals kept in other captive environments."[44]
Sweden,
Austria,
Costa Rica,
India,
Finland,
Singapore,
Switzerland, and
Denmark
have already restricted the use of animals in entertainment. In response
to a growing popular concern about the use of animals in entertainment,
animal-free circuses are becoming more common around the world.[45]
In 2009, Bolivia passed legislation banning the use of any animals, wild
or domestic, in circuses. The law states that circuses "constitute an
act of cruelty." Circus operators had one year from the bill's passage
on July 1, 2009 to comply.[46]
Greece
became the first
European
country to ban any animal from performing in any circus in its territory
in February 2012, following a campaign by
Animal Defenders International and the Greek Animal Welfare Fund
(GAWF).[47]
In music, films, plays, and books
The atmosphere of the circus has served as a dramatic setting for
many musicians. The famous circus theme song is actually called "Entrance
of the Gladiators", and was composed in 1904 by
Julius Fučík. Other circus music includes "El Caballero", "Quality
Plus", "Sunnyland Waltzes", "The Storming of El Caney", "Pahjamah",
"Bull Trombone", "Big Time Boogie", "Royal Bridesmaid March", "The Baby
Elephant Walk", "Liberty Bell March", "Java", Strauss's "Radetsky
March", and "Pageant of Progress". A poster for
Pablo Fanque's Circus Royal, one of the most popular circuses of
Victorian England, inspired
John Lennon to write
Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite! on
The Beatles' album,
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The song title refers to
William Kite, a well-known circus performer in the 19th century.
Producer
George Martin and
EMI engineers
created the song’s fairground atmosphere, one that epitomizes the feel
of the entire album, by assembling a sound collage of collected
recordings of calliopes and fairground organs, which they cut into
strips of various lengths, threw into a box, and then mixed up and
edited together randomly, creating a long loop which was mixed into the
final production.[48]
Another traditional circus song is the
John Phillip Sousa march "Stars
and Stripes Forever", which is played only to alert circus
performers of an emergency.
Plays set in a circus include the 1896 musical The Circus Girl
by
Lionel Monckton, Polly of the Circus written in 1907 by
Margaret Mayo, He Who Gets Slapped written by Russian
Leonid Andreyev 1916 and later adapted into one of the first circus
films, Caravan written in 1932 by
Carl Zuckmayer, the revue Big Top written by
Herbert Farjeon in 1942, Top of the Ladder written by
Tyrone Gutheris in 1950, Stop the World, I Want to Get Off
written by
Anthony Newley in 1961, and
Barnum with music by
Cy
Coleman and lyrics and book by
Mark Bramble.
Following
World War I, circus films became popular; in 1924
He Who Gets Slapped was the first film released by
MGM; in 1925 Sally of the Sawdust (remade 1930), Variety,
and Vaudeville were produced, followed by The Devil's Circus
in 1926 and
The Circus starring
Charlie Chaplin, Circus Rookies,
4
Devils; and Laugh Clown Laugh in 1928. German film
Salto Mortale about trapeze artists was released in 1930 and remade
in the United States and released as
Trapeze starring
Burt Lancaster in 1956; in 1932
Freaks
was released; Charlie Chan at the Circus, Circus (USSR)
and The Three Maxiums were released in 1936 and
At the Circus starring the
Marx Brothers and You Can't Cheat an Honest Man in 1939.
Circus films continued to be popular during the Second World War, The
Great Profile starring
John Barrymore was released in 1940, the animated
Disney film
Dumbo,
Road Show and
The Wagons Roll at Night in 1941 and Captive Wild Woman
in 1943.
The film Tromba, about a tiger trainer was released in 1948
and in 1952
Cecil B. de Mille's Oscar winning film
The Greatest Show on Earth was first shown. Released in 1953
were Man on a Tightrope and
Ingmar Bergman's Gycklarnas afton released as Sawdust and
Tinsel in the United States; Life is a Circus; Ring of
Fear;
3 Ring Circus and
La strada an Oscar winning film by
Federico Fellini about a girl who is sold to a circus strongman;
Fellini made a second film set in the circus called
The Clowns in 1970. Films about the circus made since 1959
include
B-movie
Circus of Horrors, musical
Billy Rose's Jumbo, A Tiger Walks a Disney film about a
tiger that escapes from the circus and
Circus World starring
John Wayne. In the film
Jungle Emperor Leo, Leo's son, Lune, is captured and placed in a
circus, which burns down when a tiger knocks down a ring of fire while
jumping through it.
The TV series
Circus Humberto, based on the novel by
Eduard Bass, follows the history of the circus family Humberto
between 1826 and 1924. The setting of the HBO television series
Carnivàle, which ran from 2003 to 2005, is also largely set in a
traveling circus. The circus has also inspired many writers. Numerous
books, both non-fiction and fiction, have been published about circus
life. Notable examples of circus-based fiction include
Circus Humberto by
Eduard Bass,
Cirque Du Freak by
Darren Shan, and
Spangle by
Gary Jennings. The novel "Water
for Elephants" by
Sara Gruen tells the fictional tale of a circus veterinarian and was
made into a movie with the same title starring
Robert Pattinson and
Reese Witherspoon.
Circus is the central theme in comic books of
Super Commando Dhruva, an Indian comic book superhero. According to
this series, Dhruva was born and brought up in a fictional Indian circus
called Jupiter circus. When a rival Globe circus burnt down Jupiter
circus killing everyone in it, including Dhruva's parents, Dhruva vowed
to become a crime fighter. A circus based television series was also
telecasted in India in 1989 on
DD National called
Circus, starring
Shahrukh Khan as the lead actor.
Buildings
Paper postcard of the Old
Kharkov Wood Circus
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 or
Cirkus in Stockholm, Sweden.