For many people, the word ‘circus’ conjurs up images of ring-masters, lion tamers, red-nosed clowns, trapeze artists and red-and-white striped tents. But traditional circus has been progressing over the past few decades into a more contemporary artform based on performers – minus the animals – reflected in the work of international companies like Cirque de Soleil and Circus Oz. But Britain still seems to be lagging behind the rest of the world when it comes to establishing a major national contemporary circus group or garnerning support from government. For now, hope lies with training institutions like The Circus Space, which offers the UK’s only degree course in circus.
The Circus Space emerged in 1989, from a group of performers looking for somewhere to train, practice, create work, and teach. Charlie Holland, now Deputy Chief Executive and Programme Director at the Circus Space, recognised the need for such a place, after a circus act at the interval of a Grateful Dead concert in the early ‘80s inspired him to learn to juggle.
‘It took me three months to find someone who could teach me the most basic three-ball cascade,’ he recalls. ‘So, by the late 1980s, there was a need for… somewhere where people could kind of home in on, and exchange stuff, and learn stuff, which hadn’t [previously] been possible.’
Holland has worked with the Circus Space since 1991, assisting the development of the two-year BTEC performing arts and circus diploma, which ran for four intakes from 1995 to 1999, as well as the BA (Hons) Theatre Practice – Circus degree, developed in association with the Central School for Speech and Drama.
So how did a group of circus performers manage to launch a national degree course? According to Holland, the staff gradually developed an understanding of how the education system worked, but had to overcome obstacles when it came to defining circus as an artform in order to prove its validity as a Bachelor of Arts degree.
‘It’s questions like, “Well, if this is going to be a BA degree, why do you think circus is an artform?”’ Holland says, replying to his staged question: ‘Well, why is French (language) considered an art [that] you can get a Bachelor of Arts in?’
Internationally, circus is flourishing, with a number of countries establishing national circus schools. A report on circus arts commissioned by Arts Council England in 2001, by Felicity Hall, found Canada, Russia, China, Belgium and Australia all have national circus schools. Internationally renowned company Cirque de Soleil received substantial investment from the Quebec government in 1985 and now employs about 2,000 people, including 500 performers, with shows across four continents.
Circus in France has also been a government priority, leading to the establishment of the French national circus school, Centre National des Arts du Cirque, in Chalon-en-Champagne. The Year of Circus, in 2001-2002, led by the French Minister for Culture, invested FF17.7 million in all types of circus.
But Holland notes the different cultural issues at play in Britain, which have meant that circus is still to find a place on the UK Government’s agenda.
‘Things in the UK don’t happen in the same way as they do in France,’ he observes. ‘France takes a very “top-down” approach: “We going to invest in circus and therefore we need to have a national circus centre”,’ Holland explains. ‘In the UK, it’s more of a regionalised “bottom-up” approach. Someone makes the case for something… Rather than having a national circus centre, you tend to have different kinds of component parts.’
Tim Roberts, the Circus Space Higher Education Course Director, agrees: ‘The reason the BA degree [at the Circus Space] exists here is [because of the] personal commitment by the people who work at the Circus Space.’
Felicity Hall’s report also recognises that cultural differences between countries like France and Britain are at play when it comes to garnering national government support for circus.
‘In spite of the fact that circus was invented in this country, it has never been seen as occupying the same place in the hierarchy of art as other artforms, by either audiences or the cultural establishment,’ the report found. ‘Historically, circus has been seen as entertainment rather than art in England.’
The report found the reasons for this ‘entertainment’ or ‘not-art’ perception, included: a perceived class-based nature for circus, animal rights issues, cultural distrust of nomadic lifestyles, lack of artistic quality and integrity and the emphasis on commercial income.
Despite this, another report found a considerable audience for circus. A pilot study carried out in 2001 by the Social Survey Division of the Office for National Statistics, indicated that over a 12 month period, 18% of respondents had attended circus (without animals), carnival or street arts, compared to 22% at a play or drama.
However, the barriers to circus development posed by difficulties in applying for funding have been broken down somewhat at Arts Council England. In October 2000, responsibility for the artform of circus, street arts and carnival moved from the Arts Council’s Collaborative Arts Unit to the Drama department, while in April 2001, responsibility for street arts and circus was incorporated into the newly created post of Non-text-based Drama Officer.
Alongside these developments, there has also been a growth in circus courses. Apart from the Circus Space degree, Circomedia in Bristol operates foundation and diploma courses, while Zippo’s Circus has operated The Academy of Circus Arts touring training programme since 1992.
Back at the Circus Space, Holland is challenging the perceptions of circus generated by the term itself, which he finds problematic, and which the BA course attempts to deconstruct.
If you settle on the notion that performers – like those trained at the Circus Space – come from ‘circus’, he says, there is a risk that the understanding of what they do will be limited by this description. Some Circus Space students, and indeed, other performers trained in circus skills, are more comfortable describing their work as ‘live art’, ‘performance art’ or ‘acrobatic art’, rather than simply, ‘circus arts’.
According to Course Director Tim Roberts, who joined the institution in 2000 after seven years with the Centre National de Arts du Cirque, the BA course focuses as much on theatre and dance, as it does on developing students’ technical skills.
‘We feel here on the team that we have to put as much emphasis on the creative side and performance side, as we do on the technical side,’ Roberts explains. The idea, he says, is to get students to develop their skills to a competent technical level, but to use their technical skills only as a base from which to create work. Otherwise, he says, they risk going over the same ground already covered in circus.
‘They should use that [technical skills] as their vocabulary to create,’ he notes. ‘A musician doesn’t stick in all the notes he plays, a painter doesn’t use all the colours that he knows, and I think a circus performer should do the same thing.’
‘If you can do a triple back with a triple twist, and it looks shit, you’re not doing anyone a favour. But if you possess it, and understand it, and it fits into what you want to do correctly, and you’ve made those choices consciously as an artist, then people will understand and not pay attention to your technical level because you’ve actually created something that people will watch on another level.’
Midsummer Madness: The sixth Circus Space Festival begins today, June 18 and runs until June 22, at The Circus Space, Coronet Street, London N1 6HD.
For further programme and booking details CLICK HERE to visit the Circus Space website.
