Circus

From the time that humans began to organize themselves socially, communal public entertainment played an important role. As societies expanded, public spectacles grew in scope and complexity. The birth of the circus in western culture has its origins in the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations. The term circus originally referred to an open round space in an urban setting where streets converged, such as Piccadilly Circus in London, built in the early 1800s. The term also refers to performance entertainment that has fit different formats, especially in its modern history. Circuses are believed to have existed since 500 BCE, but in its contemporary format its history encompasses approximately 250 years. Today’s circus has strong British and equestrian roots, as well as a historical background in traveling performance troupes. Modern circuses are usually traveling companies of performers that comprise acrobats, mimes, clowns, musicians, jugglers, magicians, gymnasts, and stunt acts.

Brief History

The circus has a long history, although its format has changed significantly over time. Circuses in ancient Greece and Rome, like hippodromes or horse race tracks, were usually arenas for horse and chariot races and other equestrian performances. Scholars believe that Roman circuses developed over a lengthy period of time from simple racing tracks to wooden seating structures before they finally were built in stone. They tended to feature a rectangular shape with a rounded end to seat dignitaries, surrounded by seating in an ascending style for the general public.

Throughout ancient times to the Middle Ages and across civilizations, circuses have been one of the most important entertainment venues of the time. Performances that include some sort of acrobatic, animal, and comedic skill have always existed. In Europe, performing troupes visited fairgrounds and public plazas, seeking a public to entertain in order to make a living. Early modern circuses, however, were still mostly demonstrations of equestrian performance and skills. Performances evolved throughout the eighteenth century, when historic reenactments became an important feature. British equestrian Philip Astley is credited with creating the first circus in the latter part of eighteenth-century England. Astley’s design was based on a circular arena he called the circus—or circle—which would later be known as the ring.

Astley also opened Paris’s first circus in 1782. Around the same time, a former associate of Astley, equestrian Charles Hughes, in association with pantomime performer Charles Dibdin, opened the rival Royal Circus in London. This signaled the addition of performing arts to the equestrian circus component. Equestrian John B. Ricketts opened the first circuses of the United States and Canada in the 1790s. Another British equestrian, Philip Lailson, opened the first circus in Mexico in the early 1800s. The influence of circus aesthetics reached the visual arts. It can be seen, for example, in the depictions of one-ring circuses, acrobats, horse riders, and clowns of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Paris, made by artists such as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Pablo Picasso.

Overview

The traditional circus building, developed late in the nineteenth century and still used, is a round structure with wooden seating and one or several rings, in which a ringmaster introduces a variety of performances to a background of traditional music. Many were open air venues. The iconic large tents with covered seating, popularly known as big tops, were also introduced in the mid-nineteenth century. It continued to be the most popular style and continued almost unchanged until the 1970s.

The nineteenth century gave way to the golden age of American circuses, spearheaded by enterprising circus masters such as P. T. Barnum, James Bailey, and the Ringling Brothers. P. T. Barnum, also known as “the prince of humbug,” incorporated sleight-of-hand tricks and freak show exhibits, such as sirens and the famous Tom Thumb. The early American circus offered a raucous and often titillating spectacle to urban centers populated by a rising middle class, as well as to rural areas with few entertainment opportunities. Circus promoters were often seen as little more than hucksters. Circus audiences mingled social classes, which were sometimes outraged by the spectacle. In many circus venues, as well, Victorian notions of gender and race were challenged, spearheading modern ideas. Its rapid development paralleled the expansion of the American railroad system and modern industrial technology, giving birth to larger productions for mass audiences and the phenomenon known as railroad circuses.

After World War I, the early equestrian-based circus faded away. Russia came to be at the vanguard of circus performance. After Soviet Russia’s nationalization of circuses, the Moscow Circus School opened in the 1920s. Among other innovations, Russia developed new techniques and choreographies based on gymnastics and modern equipment. Since then, circuses have been reviving the circus tradition throughout the twentieth century and around the world. For example, although China has an acrobatic tradition that spans hundreds of years, its circus troupes developed new formats after the Maoist revolution, just as the Russians had done.

The circus vanguard movement spanned the world, with a countercultural circus movement in 1970s United States centered in California and New York. The influential Pickle Family Circus in San Francisco, for example, focused on juggling and a deeply democratic division of labor and finances. In the twenty-first century, the Pickle Family Circus continued to exert a strong influence in many circuses. France and Monaco instituted important international circus festivals, also in the 1970s.

In the 1980s, the École nationale de cirque in Canada, the Centre national des arts du cirque in France, and other circus arts schools were created in Australia, Europe, South America, and the United States, among others. The new schools focused on increasingly innovative, highly aesthetic, and sometimes edgy styles, such as the human-centered and stylized Cirque du Soleil, created in the 1980s. Other schools strive to recover and modernize the philosophy of earlier twentieth-century schools, such as the Russian movement of circus arts. Besides the still prevalent Cirque du Soleil, among leading circuses with vast followings in the United States have been the Big Apple Circus in New York,Circus Flora in St. Louis, and the travelling Circus Vargas. The circus, an ever-changing venue of popular entertainment through the centuries, continues to evolve and develop artistically to the delight of audiences around the world.

Hard Times for Circuses

However, by 2016, some of the big circuses in the United States were struggling to remain in business. In July 2016, after failed attempts to raise funds to cover crippling operating costs, Big Apple Circus announced in a press release that it had canceled its public performances. While the circus would continue offering some community programs, it did not have enough money from ticket sales alone to continue touring and regular performances; the company also cited negative impacts on its business beginning in the later half of the first decade of the 2000s, including the economic recession of 2008 and Hurricane Sandy. While the Big Apple Circus is a nonprofit organization, even the popular conglomerate Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey faced hard times. Though the show's elephant act had always been popular with audiences, animal rights activists and others had been fighting for decades to force Ringling Brothers to remove elephants from performances because of what they viewed as a cruel existence for the animals. Ultimately, Feld Entertainment, the circus's parent company, gave in to such demands in 2015 with an announcement that elephants would be phased out of the show by 2018; however, by May 2016, it was announced that the elephants had made their last performances. The loss of this act, in combination with high operating costs and the difficulty of attracting audiences to a more outdated performance medium in such a fast-paced, technologically advanced entertainment world, led to the decision to permanently cease performances by May 2017.

Having filed for bankruptcy and obtained new ownership, the Big Apple Circus was able to begin a new season, which launched with performances in New York in late 2017. While the Big Apple Circus continued to hold and adjust its performances to bring in audiences into the early 2020s, including after the COVID-19 pandemic forced it to temporarily shut down once more for the 2020–21 season.

In 2022, Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey announced a reimagined return to circus venues. As part of changes made to its performances, its production company emphasized that live animals would no longer be included in Ringling shows. The show relaunched in 2023, focusing on human acts and acrobatics rather than animal performances.

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