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The Classification of Circus Techniques

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2021

Hovey Burgess
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Extract

In writing on theatre, various authors have pointed out that circus-type performances have always been more prevalent than performances of literary drama; that circus-type performance has been a deep secondary tradition of the theatre from which the legitimate stage has repeatedly drawn new strength and vitality; and that the circus is looked to by the public “for violent satisfactions, the intentions of which do not deceive them.” I use the term “circus-type” to emphasize an important distinction between the very ancient “circus-type” skills of contortionists, equilibrists, tumblers, jugglers, clowns, etc., and the modern form of “circus,” even though the latter is the most obviously significant depository of the former.

The modem circus is by no means a direct descendant of the ancient Roman circus. Roman circuses, such as Circus Maximus, were architectural structures designed primarily for chariot races.

Type
The Popular Performer
Information
The Drama Review , Volume 18 , Issue 1: Popular Entertainments , March 1974 , pp. 65 - 70
Copyright
Copyright © 1974 The Drama Review

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References

1 Artaud, Antonin, The Theatre and its Double (New York: Grove Press, 1958), p. 84.Google Scholar

The title photo, courtesy of Alexander M. Voloshin, shows Zinovy B. Gurevich teaching at the Moscow Circus School.

2 This error is found in such standard texts as Earl May's The Circus From Rome to Ringling.

3 It is interesting to note that Brander Matthews—the first man in the United States to be appointed a professor of dramatic literature—had, as a youth, learned elementary juggling and flying trapeze. In a practice session, he “dropped the bar” to Jules Leotard, originator of the flying trapeze.

4 See “Circus and the Actor,” an intecview with Hovey Burgess in The Drama Review (March, 1972), T-53.

5 The Russian circus was nationalized in 1919 and the Moscow Circus School was established by the Soviet government in 1927, making it the first such school in the world. Today, “Soviet circus” includes 50 permanent circuses, 13 summer tent circuses, 13 animal circuses, 50 teams doing concert acts, 6,000 employes and performers, more than 500 circus acts, 32,000 annual performances, and 43 million spectators annually.

6 See Gurevich's “Zhanre Sovetskogo Tsirka” in Sovetskaia Tsirk (1961, no. 2).