4.1. CIRCUS AS A COMMUNITY
TOOL
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Circus has proven to be �one of the most
successful forms of community theatre� (Mullet: Lines 387-388). The reasons
for this are numerous. Research participants see circus as a �popular�
theatre form that appeals to audiences beyond those who regularly attend
theatre. It appeals to audiences across a broad range of age, ethnicity
and class. This broad range of appeal is also reflected in projects that
encourage community participation in performance. In such projects, the
basic circus skills are taught quickly, with the results being both more
tangible and quantifiable, than the results of more conventional theatre
projects. This immediacy also tends to assist in the development of self-esteem
amongst participants in a shorter time than other theatre forms. Improved
physical fitness and balance required for many circus skills have a marked
impact on the mental and emotional state of participants. Certain aspects
of circus mythology are powerful metaphors that can be of great use to
the community theatre worker.
4.1.1. Circus as Popular Entertainment
The apprehension of circus as a �popular�
form of entertainment is central to the development of contemporary circus,
and an important premise in its use in the community theatre movement.
One of the major objectives behind the establishment of Circus Oz was a
desire to reach audiences beyond those who regularly attend theatre:
| �Well, back then, people were chasing audiences. Really the people from the theatre were thinking �these are the same people who came to see our last show, and there are only forty of them. We�ve got to get out there and find a good popular form of theatre that all sorts of people can identify with.�� (�Circus Oz�:1983:11) |
The desire to draw audiences who do not normally
attend theatre is considered by Mullet (Lines 1 86-1 94) to have always
been an important feature of Circus Oz:
| �It�s [Circus Oz�s] claim in terms of community [is] that it is a popular art form that appeals to a wide community.� (Mullet:1 91-192) |
Circus Oz still maintains a diverse audience
profile, according to Broadway (Lines 282-294) who claims that, although
it causes problems in marketing the company, it is nevertheless an important
feature of the company:
| �It�s pretty exciting to see an audience where you have a family of four from the western suburbs of Sydney sitting next door to a gang of guys with nose rings sitting next door to four Asian businessmen.� (Broadway: Lines 288-291) |
Circus also tends to be less intimidating
than other forms of theatre, because it is a �shared experience� (Laurie:
Lines 430-441):
| �The audience in a circle creates the sense of being there together because you can look across the circle and see each other. Whereas in rows, the perspective is solitary.� (Laurie: Lines 430-434) |
The circus audience is not required to be either quiet or still, as is often the case in the theatre. For example, Silver�s Circus, Ashton�s Circus, and the Great Moscow Circus all had food and beverage stalls open inside the tent during the show. The circus audience convention of frequent applause also promotes a more active role than is the case in much theatre.
4.1.2. The Mass Appeal of Circus
This mass appeal of circus means that projects
that encourage community participation in performance have the capacity
to involve more people, generally, than other community theatre projects.
This is evident in the statistics of a number of community circus projects.
The inaugural performance of the Flying Fruit Fly Circus, in 1979, involved
117 community performers, with ten percent of the Albury/Wodonga population
passing through the box office (Perrier:1982:30-31). In 1983, Street Arts�
West End Community Circus Festival involved 64 performers, drawn
from 1 50 workshop participants, and was attended by 3000 spectators (West
End Community Circus Festival Project Report:1 983:5). Street Arts� production,
Rock�n�RolI Circus involved over 80 people and was attended by more than
2500 (A Potted History of Rock�n�Roll Circus:1 991 :Section 1.0). The first
performance of Women�s Circus, in 1991, involved over 70 women (Geddes:1
992:2 2) with more than 50 performing. Hundreds of people were turned away
at the box office during the three-week season (Richards:1 992:89).
4.1.3. Circus and Cultural Difference
Community circus projects are not just for
young people. While the more athletic disciplines, such as tumbling and
aerial work are more suitable to younger people, many of the manipulative
and balancing disciplines can be taught to any age group. For example,
the workshops conducted by Street Arts for their 1983 festival involved
people aged between 11 and 40 years old (West End Community Circus Festival
Project Report:1983:13). The Women�s Circus encourages participants over
thirty (Forth: Line 112).
Circus is particularly useful in working with multi-ethnic communities. This is particularly true of many contemporary styles of circus being developed in Australia. As a result of the two training projects conducted in Albury/Wodonga by the Nanjing Acrobatic Troupe from China in the mid-1980s, many contemporary circus acts are derivatives of Chinese acts. The group bike routine, used by Rock�n�Roll Circus, Circus Oz, and the Flying Fruit Fly Circus, amongst others, is an example of a classic Chinese act, developed by Australian circus. There are also many other examples. This Chinese influence has been furthered by the immigration to Australia of former Nanjing acrobat, Lu Guang Rong, who is now performer and head trainer with Circus Oz. In Bathurst, a community circus troupe has recently been trained by a Vietnamese performer. There has also been the Moscow 1 Training Project in Albury/Wodonga in 1992, as well as frequent formal and informal contact between the Flying Fruit Fly Circus and performers from the Great Moscow Circus, one of which was observed during the course of this research. Earl Shatford, principle performer with the Fruit Flies, and Alexi Prohorov, juggled together at the Fruit Flies� rehearsal space during the recent visit to Albury/Wodonga by Edgley�s Moscow Circus.
Because most European cultures have experience
of circus and many other cultures have some tradition of acrobatic or other
circus-related performance, circus appeals to ethnically diverse audiences.
Both New Circus and Soapbox Circus used circus in performances for Italian-Australian
communities (Appendix D:454-456). Broadway (Lines 292-294) says of Circus
Oz:
| �We get a lot of migrant and non-Australian born Australians [in the audience] who come from countries where there is more of a circus going tradition.� |
For this reason circus is also useful in working with different ethnic groups. Street Arts has found circus particularly useful in working with the ethnically diverse West End community. In their first community circus festival, �over a dozen nationalities were represented in the performing troupes� (West End Community Circus Festival Project Report:1 983:5). During the workshop period for this festival, they also found circus was a very successful medium for working with ESL classes at West End and East Brisbane State Schools (West End Community Circus Festival Project Report:1 983:10-12).
Bolton (1 987:61) believes that circus also
has appeal across a range of socioeconomic strata:
| �As an art form, circus transcends class barriers. As recently as Bertram Mills� hey day of the 1950s, gypsies and royalty rubbed shoulders at Olympia, and today Dick Franco can be juggling for Prince Rainier one week, and with California (sic) hippies the next.� |
One reason why circus has such a broad appeal
is because it is primarily composed of physical forms of performance. Because
everyone has a body, circus performance tends to transcend cultural differences
in any group to focus it on a common project, whether that is as audience
or performers. Laurie (Lines:436-441) says of the circus audience:
| �Because it�s [the circus ring] a circle, they sit, they see each other, it�s very much a part of being a shared experience. They construct it together as an audience. I think that�s fantastic. I think that�s really powerful. Especially now, when those occasions are few and far between.� |
This is not to say that circus obliterates
difference within a group. Rather, it is a capacity in circus, because
of its structure and the variety of disciplines contained therein, to incorporate
difference into a single event:
| �if you are the wrong body shape you won�t go into tumbling. You might do something else. There is all of that once you get into an elite level, but at an initial level anyone can find something to do reasonably well at.� (Mullet: Lines 373-377) |
4.1.4. The Accessibility of Circus Skills
Having this variety of disciplines makes
circus more accessible than other forms of theatre for the novice. Once
a discipline has been chosen, technical expertise is not the only factor
in creating an effective and entertaining performance. Olsen (Lines 162-165)
observes:
| �Maybe it�s just people�s perception of theatre, but circus is more accessible somehow. People are more willing to have a go. And I suppose it�s because of the clown option. �Even if I can�t do it good, I can do it as a clown.�� |
This mixture of physical and performative aspects of an act gives the workshop leader a great deal of scope to tailor acts to an individual�s capabilities.
Another aspect of circus�s accessibility is
that, in the teaching of skills, the results for participants are often
both immediate and tangible. A good example of this is the basic three-ball
juggle. Almost ten years� personal experience of teaching juggling has
led to the observation that most people can learn the three-ball juggle
in under an hour, with many learning within thirty minutes. A number of
the research participants also cite the three-ball juggle to illustrate
the tangibility of circus skills. Laurie (Lines 351-353) observes:
| �You can�t do three balls. The next day you can and juggle. One day you can�t do a trick and the next day you can.� |
Mullet (Lines 395-405) considers that this
makes circus more quantifiable than other theatrical forms:
| �you can either juggle or you can�t. Once you can juggle three balls you have got a tangible skill that you can show that is non-threatening, it may be scary to get up on stage but it is a quantifiable skill whereas acting is not a quantifiable skill... the language surrounding theatrical stuff is woolly.� |
Unlike acting skills, where a considerable amount of time may be expected before such skills can be used in performance (even in the most basic situation time to rehearse and learn lines is required), the learning process of juggling and many other circus skills are performative.
4.1.5. Circus Training and Self Esteem
Because these skills are learnt quickly,
and the results for participants are immediately tangible, raising the
levels of self esteem in an individual can be achieved very quickly. As
Mullet (Line 41 5-41 7) says, the accessibility of circus skills �makes
them very approachable and very easy to gain a sense of achievement within
it.�
The nature of such empowerment is determined
by the physicality of circus. Increases in physical fitness have an obvious
impact on self-image especially in contemporary urban society where body
consciousness is such a central concern. Physical control required for
many disciplines also has a direct impact on the state of mind of participants:
| �If the aim of meditation is to change the working pattern of your mind, to fade out the current problems and anxieties, to feel your body focus move down from your crowded brain to your inner centre ... then I recommend the tightrope.� (Bolton:1987:60) |
The use of circus within a community where
self-esteem is generally low, allows the practitioner to open a dialogue
with and within participants where the language is physical. The sense
of achievement and clarity gained from such a dialogue can deliver a completely
integrated therapeutic experience which in many cases can be life changing:
| �if you work physically, you become stronger physically, but physical confidence helps your self esteem ... there�s this sort of inescapable interaction between the mind and body.� (Laurie: Lines 361-366) |
The Women�s Circus, discussed in detail later, has worked with particular effectiveness on this level of mind-body interaction.
Bolton (First National Circus Summit Report: 1990:44) believes that the self esteem that circus has the potential to deliver is not simply a matter of self love and self satisfaction, but �a subtle and satisfying sophistication in combining the pride of performance with the humility of the clown.� On these many levels circus is able to deliver a sense of self worth that is both deeper and more sophisticated than other forms of theatre.
4.1.6. The Application of Circus Mythology
Circus�s accessibility also relates to certain
aspects of its mythology, and conversely, certain aspects of its mythology
can be used as powerful metaphors in work with certain communities. The
image of circus performers as being itinerant can provide a cultural mechanism
by which �outsiders� can be accepted into a new community. The Murray River
Performing Group (MRPG) and Street Arts have both used circus to establish
themselves in new communities. The MRPG were confronted with a particularly
suspicious community in Albury/Wodonga when they first began operations
in 1 979. Their production of The Flying Fruit Fly Circus proved to be
one of their early successes, and remains one of the outstanding achievements
of the company. Likewise, Street Arts used circus in the form of a festival
to �assess the level of support for community arts (specifically Community
Theatre [sic]) within the local community� (West End Community Circus Festival
Project Report:1983:5).
This notion of itinerancy also makes circus an effective tool for working in communities where itinerancy is a fact of life. For example, Rock�n�Roll Circus, has used circus successfully with street kids in their production of PSST in 1989. The mythology surrounding the travelling circus has the potential to provide a positive cultural model to people with itinerant lifestyles. Rather than running away from the dysfunctional circumstances of one�s life, one can run away to the circus.
This notion of running away to join the circus
has also proved to be a useful metaphor for the Women�s Circus. As Forth
(Lines 147-150) says:
| �the idea of circus is that they have run away from their lives, like they have to come to the circus, they can run away to the circus, they can be whatever they want to be.� |
This company has also developed a network of support for participants that is reminiscent of the close-knit unit of the traditional family circus.
This is a summary of the attributes of circus as a tool in community theatre practice. The following section examines in detail the way in which circus has been applied in community theatre practice in Australia, and how contemporary circus form has developed out of this application.