4.3. THE LEGACIES OF COMMUNITY ACTIVISM
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Despite the difficulties in pursuing radical arts practice, both in terms of community involvement and narrative comment (outlined in the previous chapter), there are nevertheless legacies from the experiences of the last two decades for contemporary circus culture. The strong feminist principle, behind much of the work of the APG and predominant within the community theatre movement, has had lasting effect on the development of contemporary circus. By implication, it has raised more general issues relating to male and female sexuality. The principle of collective management has also had significant impact contemporary circus, both in terms of company structure and artistic development. Perhaps the most significant legacy of the community theatre movement, however, is the importance placed on public workshops and training.
 

4.3.1. Circus and Sexuality
The impact of feminist philosophy on contemporary circus, as with the rest of society, has been multifarious. Many of the participants in this research are women with considerable experience in circus and sophisticated theoretical positions on feminist issues. This is the climate that allows companies such as the Women�s Circus to prosper, and further develops the number of women who have strong circus skills and an ability to assert their sexuality.

Sexuality is undeniably a perennial theme of circus. Circus performers have strong, toned and flexible bodies, and often part of the safety conditions for many routines require close fitting costumes. The result is visible bodies performing extraordinary feats. Parkinson (Lines 56-59) says of the Flying Fruit Fly Circus:
 

�circus costumes have traditionally been skimpy as much for the safety angle as for the visual angle and we don�t go for vast expanses of flesh here, but we have always gone for close fitting costumes.�

Indeed, costuming is a focus of feminist debate in circus. Oates (Lines 670-674) sums up an early feminist approach to circus:
 

�an original thing there ... with contemporary circus was: lets show differently from what traditional circus does, let's take away the bikini, lets take away the beautiful assistants, let's lose the high heels and let's make them strong.�

Part of the objection to the costuming of women in traditional circus is �that they don�t actually have a choice� (Forth: Lines 268-269). The situation in contemporary circus now, however, is some young women that have a feminist tradition preceding them assert their sexuality by presenting their bodies in an affirmative and powerful way:
 

�I want to get a lot of tattoos and I want to push in a way that women can be ... highly sexual and that is alright, like it is not degrading women to get on stage with nothing and shake their bits because you can be proud of what you�ve got.� (Oates: Lines 607-615)

This is one of the strengths of circus learnt from its application in a community context: that people can be taught to rediscover their bodies. This is particularly relevant to women who through media representation have lost control of their bodies. Forth (Lines 281-283) considers the women who perform in Edgley�s Great Moscow Circus:
 

�their costumes might be horrible but they have still got a sense, a confidence within themselves ... it�s not that derogatory or anything.�

Mullet (Lines 310-31 6) considers that her experience with circus has opened possibilities up to her, that she normally wouldn�t have been exposed to, but does know whether this is in fact an intrinsic element of non-traditional circus or not:
 

�I�ve managed to do things within the circus world that I wouldn�t have been able to do in the straight world and I�m not sure whether that�s because it�s a new circus or just because it�s circus. So I�ve been able to learn rigging, to drive trucks, to do the sort of thing [that] would have been much harder outside the circus world.� (Mullet 310-316)

There is some evidence that this is starting to have an impact on the way men think about portraying their sexuality in the circus ring. Rock�n�Roll Circus�s production of Bodyslam deals with male sexuality in two adagio acts: one between Minuer and Brown in body suits with large penises attached to the outside, and one between Brown and Oates (see Appendix B). Brown (Lines 529-538) says:
 

�I talk about men [in performance] in a wide range of ages ... I was thinking of the strong man, people saying, �Wow, you must be strong to do that�, relates to men because of our society and all the things that go with it, like I don�t get many women coming up and saying, �Wow, you must be strong�.�

4.3.2. Collective Management
Collective management has in the past been an important feature of contemporary circus. Rock�n�Roll Circus maintains a collective management structure which, on the whole, has worked very effectively for the company. Circus Oz managed to maintain a collective structure until 1987, until the shear number of members of the collective combined with pressure from funding authorities brought it to an end:
 

�if they [the PAB] were going to give us money they wanted us to change to a structure they knew how to deal with.� (Appendix D:471)

Generational change has also contributed to the collective becoming unmanageable. Since 1984, there have been new members coming into the company without the same strong ideological concern with management structure. Nevertheless, this mythology of collectivism survives at Circus Oz, with an impact on the way the company makes both management and artistic decisions:
 

�I think it is inevitable that there will be disagreements and difficulties, and I don�t necessarily think that is a bad thing. The only way you could set up a circus without disagreements and difficulties would be if one person was running it and saying we�re doing this, this, this, this, and this and anyone who doesn�t want to do this can leave now.� (Broadway: Lines 553-558)

Difficulties have arisen in the company since 1987, as the company strives to restructure and further refine its identity. This is discussed in more detail in Chapter 5.

4.3.3. Public Workshops
Public Workshops have become an institution in contemporary circus. Often being the first stage in a community project, they have since become a way of life for many companies. What began as community youth workshops for the Flying Fruit Fly Circus have lead to Albury/Wodonga becoming the national focus for circus training. While public access workshops may make up less of their overall training program, they are still an important component. The company�s reputation for hosting international training projects, as well as facilitating the establishment of the Acrobatic Arts Community School, makes it pivotal in the continuing growth of circus in this country (see Appendix C). The development of circus training in Albury/Wodonga is discussed in detail in Chapter 2.

Public workshops are also an important part of the activity of Circus Oz. With Lu Guang Rong as head trainer and a myriad of performers, ex-performers and graduates from the Flying Fruit Fly Circus and the Women�s Circus, these workshops provide the best chance for the skills of contemporary circus to be disseminated into a wider community. Broadway (Lines 351-357) identifies the value for the company of conducting workshops:
 

�To identify potential new performers for the company. To provide work for people when they are not doing shows. To generate an energy in the building, because we�re away so much of the time. It�s really nice for the building to be used, for people to come here to be involved, for there to be a wider community that sees itself as having an involvement in Circus Oz.�

The company, which has recently moved to Port Melbourne, also feels that workshops are a good way to �make connections in the area that we live in� (Broadway Lines 357-358).

Public workshops were originally an important part of Rock�n�Roll Circus�s agenda, and have helped promote the development of various performance styles in Queensland. Pressures from funding authorities, however, to become a performance oriented company together with a reduction in the number of company members over the years has forced them away from regular public workshops. They do, nevertheless conduct workshops from time to time. In 1995, Oates has begun conducting workshops in circus skills for women, although these workshops are not officially a part of the company�s operations.
 
 

4.4. CONCLUSION
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While circus remains a valuable community tool, the environment for the development and maintenance of community projects has become increasingly formidable. As community theatre companies disappear or decline, one element that has survived and prospered is non-traditional circus. Even though political commentary and activism in performance have become increasingly complicated, the culture that has developed still encourages individuals to make spirited inquiry into, and observation of, social conditions. The physicality of circus makes it intrinsically political in a society where body image is inextricably linked with power and status.

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