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• Philip Astley and the first circuses
• John Bill Ricketts and the American circus
• Equestrian acts
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• International Circus Hall of Fame - History of the Circus
• Victoria and Albert Museum - The story of circus
• National Endowment for the Humanities - The Circus You Never Knew
• circus - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
• circus - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)
• Table Of Contents

circus , an entertainment or spectacle usually consisting of trained animal acts and exhibitions of human skill and daring. The word has the same root as circle and circumference , recalling the distinctive environment in which such entertainment is presented—the ring, a circular performance area usually bounded by a short fence (or “curb”). The ring may be enclosed in an arena, in a building designed for circus performances, or in a tent, and it is generally surrounded by tiers of seats for spectators.

Variations to this definition exist, however, and any attempt at a strict, all-inclusive definition reduces the term’s application to a particular nationality, generation, or proprietorship. Some circuses do not use trained animals, for example, such as the circuses of China and Africa, which feature acrobatic acts similar to those elsewhere, albeit with traditions rooted in religion and folklore. At various times circuses have offered supplementary attractions such as street parades, menageries , sideshows, pantomimes, and theatrical presentations. A number of circuses, especially in Europe, have been stationary, occupying permanent, often elegant buildings in larger cities. Others have traveled extensively—originally by horse and wagon and then by railroad, boat, motor vehicle, or even airplane—and exhibited in tents, theatres, and, beginning in the 1960s, huge enclosed sports arenas. Many circus companies, particularly in the United States , exhibit simultaneously in three or more rings, with the building or tent taking on a rectangular or elliptical shape; others retain the one-ring format. Some organizations, such as the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus , could point to a history extending back a century or more; other circuses, such as those sponsored by fraternal organizations (e.g., the Shriners), existed for less than a single season or for only one engagement. Through all the above, however, there runs a common thread: the ring, by which spectators readily recognize the entertainment known as “circus.”

Early history

The circus is of comparatively recent origin, yet certain elements can be traced back to ancient Rome . The great Roman amphitheatres —called circuses after the Latin word for “circle”—were most often devoted to gladiatorial combats, chariot races, the slaughter of animals, mock battles, and other blood sports. The most spectacular of these arenas, the Circus Maximus , was in operation for more than 1,000 years. It would seem on the surface that these exhibitions of carnage had little in common with modern circuses, yet it is from the early Roman circuses that traditions such as trained animals and the preshow parade derive.

Elsewhere, ancient peoples performed other acts associated with the modern circus. Acrobatics, balancing acts, and juggling are probably as old as humankind itself, with records of such acts being performed in Egypt as early as 2500 bce . The Greeks practiced ropedancing; early African civilizations engaged in siricasi (a combination of folkloric dances and acrobatics); and the ancient Chinese juggled and performed acrobatic acts for members of the imperial court. Clowns have existed in nearly every period and civilization, both as characters in farces and as individual performers.

For centuries, however, there were no attempts to organize such acts into a distinct entertainment; rather, individuals and small troupes of performers with specialized talents wandered through Europe, Africa, and Asia. Such roving entertainers appeared wherever groups of people gathered: in nobles’ halls, at community celebrations, and at marketplaces. In the 9th century King Alfred the Great of England was said to have been entertained by a wild beast show, and in the 11th century William the Conqueror brought performing troupes of ropedancers, tumblers, and contortionists to England from France.

Fairs played an important role in developing trade throughout Europe from the 7th century until the late medieval period, at which point more-regular channels of marketing were standardized. Fairs then became a place less for trading than for entertainment, providing a showcase for acrobatics , feats of skill, trained animals, and other elements later associated with the circus. By the late 18th century, however, they were regarded as unsavory affairs, as they had become gathering places for pickpockets, thieves, and vagrants.

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History of Circus: From Ancient Roots to Controversial Sensation

Throughout history, the word “circus” has meant many things. Yet, from violent spectacles to ethical abuse, it was all in the name of entertainment.

Picture this: in a small town in 19th century America, a train stops at the station, whistling smoke with a rumbling steam engine. Out disembark a troupe of acrobats, knife throwers, lions, and elephants, all clad in colorful costumes. The circus has arrived! For a short time, the town will host the circus, and its performers will delight young and old before packing up and continuing on their way throughout the country. The town is left behind as if nothing had ever happened.

This scene was well-known throughout the 19th century, especially in the United States. From their origins in ancient Rome to our modern times, circuses have thrived. The history of this strange institution was born from violence, and the journey was long to get to the ethical performances we know today.

Before the History of the Circus: The Circus Maximus of Ancient Rome

In ancient Rome, the word “circus” had a very different meaning than it does today. The Circus Maximus was the “oldest and largest public space in Rome” and, when it reached its largest dimensions during the 1st century CE, could allow two hundred and fifty thousand people to sit in its stands. Though it was most well-known as a racetrack for horse-drawn chariot racing, it also held the military processions for the Roman Games every September for fifteen days , “wild animal hunts, public executions and gladiator fights.” One such fight involved a small army of gladiators fighting twenty elephants at the same time.

Thus, it isn’t difficult to see where the inspiration for the modern circus comes from. The Circus Maximus was a place where animals and humans were pitted against one another for the spectacle of it all and to entertain audiences during festivals. However, these are the only similarities between the circus of ancient Rome and the modern circus, as we will see.

Phillip Astley: The Father of the Modern Circus

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Philip Astley is the father of the modern circus. Born in 1742 in Newcastle-under Lyme , England, Astley was the son of a cabinetmaker who did not follow in his footsteps. At twenty-six years old, Astley founded the Astley’s Riding School in London with his wife, Patty, where they both taught students and offered horse show performances. Musicians performed live music during those shows. The show also traveled to Paris, where the Astleys incorporated other acts “such as acrobats, a clown, and a band.”

What made these horse shows endure? It was their ability to entertain everyone, not only adults and children but also people from all social classes. Philip Astley’s show welcomed people from high society as well as lower-class people. These horse shows were the precursor to the modern circus and foretold what would make the modern circus so popular. It was entertainment for the masses at a time of great social divides.

The Royal Amphitheatre, lit with flaming candles at the time, burned down three times when Astley ran the shows. It was eventually bought by Andrew Ducrow, known as the “father of British circus equestrianism’.”

Charles Dibdin: The Man who Coined the Term “Circus”

While Philip Astley is the father of the modern circus, he wasn’t the one who coined the term. That honor goes to his contemporary, Charles Dibdin . Born in 1745 in Southampton, England, Charles Dibdin was dipped into the world of music at a young age. Dibdin sang in a choir at Winchester Cathedral for three years until 1759 and eventually became a music composer. He became a “composer, musician, dramatist, novelist and actor.”

From 1782 and for the next two years, Charles Dibdin became the manager of the Royal Circus. This was the first modern use of the word “circus.” Located not far from Philip Astley’s Riding School, Charles Dibdin’s show also used horses, like the ones in Philip Astley’s Royal Amphitheatre. One was modeled after the other, but only one man can be called the one who coined the word “circus.”

The 19 th Century: How a Changing Culture Allowed the Circus to Thrive

During the 18th century , all performances that would eventually be associated with the circus, from traveling menageries to horse shows to acrobat acts, already existed. Menageries traveled across the country, and horse shows and acrobat acts delighted audiences in arenas. But it was only when these performances were brought together under the same roof that the modern circus was born.

The 19th century was a time of social upheaval, not only in performances but also in technology. Indeed, the Industrial Revolution was the last ingredient needed to create the traveling circus in its most popular form. The invention of the steam engine, which powered modern trains, changed everything. Technological advancements facilitated communication and transportation. The Industrial Revolution allowed the circus to hop from one city to another. Employees packed up the Big Tent and all the performers in boxes and crates, only to start all over again in the next town.

People, from owners to performers, may have created those spectacles. But without the technological advancements of the nineteenth century, the 19th-century circus as we know it would have never been as popular as it was during its heyday.

Barnum & Bailey: The Most Famous Circus in History

The most famous circus in all of 19th-century America was the Barnum and Bailey show. While one of its founders, Phineas Taylor Barnum, born in 1810, is the more well-known of the two, the circus could never have seen the light of day without his business partner, James Anthony Bailey, born in 1847.

Even before Bailey’s birth, Barnum was already a figure in the entertainment industry when he bought his American Museum. The “Greatest Show on Earth” as we know it wouldn’t find its footing until 1871 when all the ingredients that had made classic circus acts with freak shows and animal menageries were brought into one. Bailey, who grew up on circuses as a child, became part of the operations when he merged the circus he co-owned with James E. Cooper, the Cooper, Bailey & Company Circus, with that of Barnum’s in 1881. Thus, the Barnum and Bailey Circus was born.

Long after Barnum died in 1891 and Bailey died in 1906, the Greatest Show on Earth thrived for the following decades. The Ringling Brothers bought it for the hefty sum of four hundred thousand dollars after Baily’s death, and it remained one of the most prominent circuses of its time, even well into the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Freak Shows & A History of Ethics

Freak shows were a large part of circus life during the 19th century. Brought on the scene even before the circus, especially in P.T. Barnum’s American Museum, they followed him across the country with his traveling Barnum and Bailey Circus. Freak shows were a way to entertain by mocking physical differences and exploiting and harassing performers within an environment of cheer and merry. Well-known “freaks” were, among others, conjoined twins, people with disabilities, and bearded women.

The freak shows in P.T. Barnum’s circus went in tandem with the animal tricks, the acrobats, and the horse show performers. They were part of a long Western tradition of exploiting exhibitions, such as the human zoos in Universal Expositions. Still, some of these “freak” performers earned fame and fortune through these exhibits. An example would be Charles Stratton, also known as “General Tom Thumb,” who was a performer with dwarfism part of P.T. Barnum’s circus.

Freak shows would remain popular in America until the 1940s, when the exploitative nature of these exhibitions came to light. They were then completely outlawed.

The 20 th Century: Continuity & Decline

As the 19th century came to a close, the circus remained popular well into the new century. Though new forms of entertainment popped up during the 1920s, especially cinemas, circuses only had to reinvent themselves, abandoning their misinformed representations of foreign cultures in favor of aerial shows and other performances. The Great Depression brought the frenzy of the 1920s to a halt. At the time, many turned to circuses to find joy and happiness in their daily lives. Still, during the Second World War, circuses remained a comforting presence in people’s lives “when railroad shows traveled under the auspices of the Office of the Defense Transportation,” and circus owners advised their audiences to join in the war efforts.

But as the 1950s rolled around, the circus saw its decline. Televisions became the norm in American households and soon dethroned the circus as the most popular form of entertainment. Soon, only thirteen circuses remained, and as audiences shrank and performers unionized, showmen shrank their operations in sizes too, until the last few days of the Big Tents, when indoor venues replaced them in 1956.

The Death of the Traditional Circus (& Birth of the 21st-Century Circus)

As the Cold War split the world, the Civil Rights movement gained traction in America. Racist performances became increasingly criticized. The circus was seen for what it was: entertainment that exploited the suffering of others at a time when it was normalized. By the time animal rights activism was born in the 1970s, the modern circus had lost most of its appeal. By the early 1980s, ableist freak shows and sideshows were dismantled as well.

But as the modern circus saw its steadfast decline during the second half of the 20th century, it would eventually do what it did best: adapt.

In Baie-Saint-Paul, Québec during the 1980s, a group of performers delighted their audiences “by juggling, dancing, breathing fire and playing music.” Among those performers was a man named Guy Laliberté. As a child, Laliberté was taken to see the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus (See Further Reading, Ian Halperin, p. 15) and grew avid of circus history as he dove into a biography on P.T. Barnum himself. In 1982, Laliberté participated with other performers in the holiday fair known as the Baie-Saint-Paul Fête Foraine, and this would be the start of his dream: to create the Cirque du Soleil, a circus on Québec soil.

Today, Cirque du Soleil has become one of the most well-known Québec companies worldwide and has delighted more than fifteen million spectacles to this day. Under Big Tents that can allow hundreds of people inside at a time, acrobats and performers wear elaborate costumes and delight audiences with their lavish shows. Cirque du Soleil travels all over the world and has a permanent residency in Las Vegas.

While the Cirque du Soleil can’t be called a circus in the traditional sense, as it has shed the trappings of 19th-century circuses, from animal shows to freak shows and sideshows, it has retained the primary goal of the modern circus: to entertain audiences of all social classes and all ages, young and old alike.

A Look Back at the History of the Circus

The circus had a long journey from the Circus Maximus in Ancient Rome to the Cirque du Soleil today. While the modern circus has shed the ethical issues dragging it down since the 19th century, it is still a place of entertainment, awe, and joy. Many men have paved the way for the circus, from Philip Astley to Charles Dibdin to P. T. Barnum and Guy Laliberté. Elephants, horses, and lions may no longer entertain in circuses, but those who remain are the performers who have found joy in their life’s work and have brought it to the public, far and wide.

Further Reading:

Halpering, Ian. Guy Laliberté: the fabulous life of the creator of Cirque du Soleil: a biography. Internet Archive, Montreal: Transit, 2009. Accessible online: https://archive.org/details/guylalibertefabu0000halp/page/14/mode/2up?q=barnum

Chariot Racing In The Roman Empire: Speed, Fame, and Politics

By Marianne Plasse BA in History, Undergraduate Certificate in Art History Marianne completed her bachelor's degree in History as well as an undergraduate certificate in Art History at the University of Montreal along with an undergraduate certificate in Proofreading at Laval University. Her areas of interest are the Mediterranean world during ancient times, European History from the fifteenth through to the twentieth centuries, and North American History from the nineteenth to the twentieth centuries. I have a soft spot for Greek mythology, Impressionist painting, Charlie Chaplin comedies, and comic book movies.

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SHORT HISTORY OF THE CIRCUS

From circopedia.

By Dominique Jando

If the history of theater, ballet, opera, vaudeville, movies, and television is generally well documented, serious studies of circus history are sparse, and known only to a few circus enthusiasts and scholars. What little the public at large knows, on the other hand, is circus history as told over the years by imaginative circus press agents, and repeated—and often misunderstood and distorted—by writers of popular fiction, Hollywood screenwriters, and journalists too busy to investigate further. One of the most popular misapprehensions about circus history is the oft-repeated idea that circus dates back to the Roman antiquity. But the Roman circus was in actuality the precursor of the modern racetrack; the only common denominator between Roman and modern circuses is the word itself, circus , which means in Latin as in English, "circle".

• 1 Philip Astley: The Father Of The Modern Circus
• 2 The Circus Is Born
• 3 The American Traveling Circus
• 4 Circus Conquers the World
• 5 Evolution of the Circus Performance
• 6 The End of the Equestrian Circus
• 7 Changes at the End of the 2oth Century
• 8 Circus in the 21st Century
• 9 Suggested Reading
• 10 Image Gallery

Philip Astley: The Father Of The Modern Circus

In 1768, Astley settled in London and opened a riding-school near Westminster Bridge, where he taught in the morning and performed his "feats of horsemanship" in the afternoon. In London at this time, modern commercial theater (a word that encompassed all sorts of performing arts) was in the process of developing. Astley's building featured a circular arena that he called the circle , or circus , and which would later be known as the ring.

The circus ring, however, was not Astley's invention; it was devised earlier by other performing trick Any specific exercise in a circus act. -riders. In addition to allowing audiences to keep sight of the riders during their performances (something that was next to impossible if the riders were forced to gallop in a straight line), riding in circles in a ring also made it possible, through the generation of centrifugal force, for riders to keep their balance while standing on the back of galloping horses. Astley's original ring was about sixty-two feet in diameter. Its size was eventually settled at a diameter of forty-two feet, which has since become the international standard for all circus rings.

The Circus Is Born

Astley opened Paris's first circus, the Amphithéâtre Anglois , in 1782. That same year, his first competitor arose: equestrian Charles Hughes (1747-97), a former member of Astley's company. In association with Charles Dibdin, a prolific songwriter and author of pantomimes, Hughes opened a rival amphitheater and riding-school in London, the Royal Circus and Equestrian Philharmonic Academy. The first element of this rather grandiose title was to be adopted as a generic name for the new form of entertainment, the circus . In 1793, Hughes went to perform to the court of Catherine the Great in St. Petersburg, Russia; that same year, one of his pupils, British equestrian John Bill Ricketts (1769-1802), opened the first circus in the United States, in Philadelphia. In 1797, Ricketts also established the first Canadian circus, in Montréal. His only competition in America, the British equestrian Philip Lailson (who came to the U.S. in 1795), brought the circus to Mexico in 1802.

Circus performances were originally given in circus buildings. Although at first these were often temporary wooden structures, every major European city soon boasted at least one permanent circus, whose architecture could compete with the most flamboyant theaters. Similar buildings were also erected in the New World's largest cities: New York, Philadelphia, Montréal, Mexico City, et al. Although buildings would remain the choice setting for circus performances in Europe well into the twentieth century, the circus was to adopt a different format in the United States.

The American Traveling Circus

In the early nineteenth century, the United States was a new, developing country with few cities large enough to sustain long-term resident circuses. Furthermore, settlers were steadily pushing the American frontier westward, establishing new communities in a process of inexorable expansion. To reach their public, showmen had little choice but to travel light and fast.

With that, the unique character of the American circus emerged: It was a traveling tent-show coupled with a menagerie and run by businessmen, a very different model from that of European circuses, which for the most part remained under the control of performing families.

In 1871, former museum promoter and impresario Phineas Taylor Barnum (1810-1891), in association with circus entrepreneur William Cameron Coup (1837-95), launched the P.T. Barnum's Museum, Menagerie & Circus, a traveling show whose "museum" part was an exhibition of animal and human oddities soon to become an integral part of the American circus, the Sideshow.

In 1872, Coup devised a system of daily transportation by rail for their circus. Another of Coup's innovations of that year was the addition of a second ring. The circus had become by far the most popular form of entertainment in America, and Barnum and Coup's enterprise was America's leading circus. Ever the businessman, Coup resolved to increase the capacity of their tent. Due to structural limitations, this could only be done effectively by increasing the tent's length, which resulted in hampering the view for large sections of the audience. The addition of a second ring, then a third (1881) and, later, up to seven rings and stages solved the problem physically, if not artistically. It could be argued that it changed the focus of the show to emphasize spectacle over artistry. For better or worse, multiple rings and stages became another unique feature of the American circus.

Circus Conquers the World

In 1836, the British equestrian Thomas Cooke visited the United States and brought back to England the American traveling-circus tent. This innovation was to ease the task of a group of European circus pioneers consumed by global ambitions. The most remarkable of these early touring companies was managed by the Italian equestrian Giuseppe Chiarini (1823-1897). In 1853, Chiarini left Europe for America, where he created his own circus and went to the unchartered territory (as far as circus was concerned) of Havana, then went to South America, crossed the Pacific, and landed in Japan in 1855. In 1864, he settled in Mexico and toured Chile and Argentina before returning to Europe in 1869. In 1874, he went to China and then sailed to Brazil. In 1878, the company embarked on a tour of Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania, Singapore, Java, Siam, India, and South America. And so it went, until the death of the intrepid Italian in Guatemala in 1897.

The French equestrian Louis Soullier (1813-1888), who managed Vienna's Circus at the Prater, toured the Balkans, settled for a time in Turkey, and then continued to China, where he introduced the circus in 1854. When he returned to Europe in 1866, he brought with him Chinese acrobats who in turn introduced traditional Chinese acts such as perch-pole Long perch held vertically on a performer's shoulder or forehead, on the top of which an acrobat executes various balancing figures. balancing, diabolo-juggling, plate-spinning, hoop-diving, et al., to Western audiences.

Another French equestrian, Jacques Tourniaire (1772-1829), went to Russia in 1816, where he established the first Russian circus. After his death, his sons Benoit and François followed in his footsteps, touring extensively in Siberia and traveling to India, China, and America.

European circus companies had ventured so far from home because they hoped to increase their profits. Their success in doing so was not lost on the handful of American circus entrepreneurs who would follow their lead.

Before entering into a partnership with P.T. Barnum in 1881, James Anthony Bailey (1847-1906) had embarked his Cooper & Bailey Circus on a trip to Honolulu, the Fiji Islands, Tasmania, the Dutch East Indies, Australia, New Zealand, and South America, a journey that lasted from 1876-78. After Barnum's death, Bailey took their Barnum & Bailey "Greatest Show on Earth" on an extensive European tour, from 1897 to 1902, which introduced bewildered Europeans to P.T. Barnum's gargantuan vision of the circus as a touring show that traveled nightly by special trains and, every day, set up and tore down immense canvas tents that housed an amalgam of triplicate circus, zoological exhibition, and freak-show.

If the three-ring format and the sideshow met with only middling enthusiasm, European circus owners were nonetheless impressed by Barnum & Bailey's touring techniques, and menagerie owners, whose business was fading at the time, were quick to recognize the advantages of adding a traveling circus to their zoological exhibitions. Thus, the tented circus and menagerie developed in Europe at the turn of the twentieth century.

When Bailey returned to the U.S. in 1902, he found his old market under the control of serious competition: the giant circus conglomerate created by the Ringling Brothers , Al (1832-1916), Otto (1837-1911), Alf T. (1863-1919), Charles (1864-1926), and John (1866-1936). One year after Bailey's death in 1906, the Ringlings acquired Barnum & Bailey, which they combined with their own circus in 1919 under the title Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Combined Shows.

In Europe, the traveling circus and menagerie reached its peak between the two World Wars, especially in Germany, where the flamboyant traveling enterprises of Krone , Sarrasani and Hagenbeck dominated the market. In large cities, however, circus performances were still given in circus buildings; Sarrasani had its own building in Dresden, Krone in Münich, Hagenbeck in Stellingen, and Paris alone maintained four permanent circuses. This, of course, created a demanding audience (in large cities, at least) who had grown accustomed to a degree of comfort and a fairly high level of production values in their elegant circus buildings. While in the U.S. the tenting techniques developed by W.C. Coup would remain practically unchanged for over a century, German and Italian tent-makers—and later French—constantly developed new systems for circus tents and seating, which eventually made some European traveling circuses nearly as comfortable and production-efficient as any permanent building.

Evolution of the Circus Performance

From its inception, the core of the circus performance had been equestrian acts ( trick Any specific exercise in a circus act. -riding, bareback acrobatics, dressage or High School , presentation of horses "at liberty "Liberty act", "Horses at liberty": Unmounted horses presented from the center of the ring by an equestrian directing his charges with his voice, body movements, and signals from a ''chambrière'' (French), or long whip. ," and even comedy on horseback) interspersed with acrobatic, balancing, and juggling acts. Dibdin and Hughes had added to that original fare the pantomime A circus play, not necessarily mute, with a dramatic story-line (a regular feature in 18th and 19th century circus performances). , a dramatic presentation which traditionally ended the performance and involved a good amount of tumbling, clowning (not necessarily mute), and equestrian displays. Pantomimes often reenacted famous battles which, true to Astley's spirit, gave equestrian performers a good opportunity to demonstrate "the different cuts and guards as in real action" or "a general engagement, sword in hand, with the different postures of offence, for the safety of man and horse..." [From an old Astley's handbill] Pantomimes remained extremely successful during the nineteenth century and survived under various forms well into the twentieth. The last notable circus pantomime A circus play, not necessarily mute, with a dramatic story-line (a regular feature in 18th and 19th century circus performances). was a spectacular adaptation of Lewis Wallace's Ben Hur which the French circus Gruss performed for several years in the 1960s.

Although in the middle of the nineteenth century equestrians, male and female, were still the true stars of the circus, acrobats began getting more and more attention. Not surprisingly, it started with acrobats on horseback, especially Americans such as John H. Glenroy , who accomplished the first somersault on horseback in 1846. "Floor" acrobats were also quick to make their mark. The best of them were often clowns. At first, circus clowns were essentially skilled parodists who might talk, sing, ride a horse, juggle, present trained animals, do balancing acts, or tumble. In the first half of the nineteenth century, an English clown Generic term for all clowns and augustes. '''Specific:''' In Europe, the elegant, whiteface character who plays the role of the straight man to the Auguste in a clown team. , Little Wheal , became famous for regularly performing a hundred consecutive somersaults in tempo—quite a feat, then or now.

By the close of the nineteenth century, railways and automobiles had begun to replace horses. Although major European circuses were still operated by equestrian families, equestrian displays were losing their supremacy to trainers of exotic animals (especially big cats), acrobats, aerialists, jugglers, and clowns. While some trained exotic animals had appeared early in circus history—around 1812 at Paris's Cirque Olympique , the Franconis presented Kioumi, the first trained elephant—it was the European combination of circus and menagerie that triggered the vogue of wild-animal presentations, which were developed in large part in Germany by the Hagenbecks, the world's foremost importers and dealers of exotic animals. Another significant transformation factor was a renewed interest in gymnastics and physical activities (which led to the resurrection of the Olympic Games in 1896) at a time when few gymnasts could be seen outside the circus.

The End of the Equestrian Circus

The most consequential early-twentieth-century innovation in the circus, however, occurred in Russia. In 1919, Lenin nationalized the Russian circuses, and the vast majority of their performers, natives of Western Europe, fled the country. Faced with the task of training a core of uniquely Russian performers, the Soviet government established, in 1927, the State College for Circus and Variety Arts , better known as the Moscow Circus School. Not only did the school rejuvenate the Russian circus, it also developed training methods modeled after sport-gymnastics, created original presentations with the help of directors and choreographers, and even originated innovative techniques and apparatuses that led to the invention of entirely new kinds of acts.

When, in the late 1950s, the Moscow Circus (a generic name adopted by all Soviet circus companies touring abroad) started showing in the West, those trained by the Soviet school contrasted favorably with those trained by the traditional circus families. Russian performers displayed originality, unparalleled artistry, and amazing technique, whereas the rest just repeated themselves in a desperate attempt to compete with both the Russian innovations and increasing competition from movies, radio, and television, which they did using the only weapons at their disposal: time-tested traditional acts. But resistance to change had transformed tradition into routine. The old circus families were losing touch with their audience's ever-transforming world.

Changes at the End of the 2oth Century

There was obviously a strong planetary need for a circus renaissance: That same year (1974), in Adelaide, Australia, a young company of clowns, acrobats and aerialists that called itself "New Circus" began to perform and attract attention. It was followed a year later by the Soapbox Circus; both companies merged in 1977, to become Circus Oz . Meanwhile, in 1975, Larry Pizoni and Peggy Snyder launched the grassroots Pickle Family Circus in San Francisco, then the epicenter of the American counterculture movement.

Perhaps not coincidentally, all these changes came at a time when European intellectuals—mostly French—were fretting over the decline of the circus as a performing art. In 1975, Prince Rainier of Monaco (a longtime circus enthusiast) created the International Circus Festival of Monte-Carlo , whose Gold and Silver Clown awards would become to the circus world what the Oscar® is to the movie industry. It was followed in 1977 by Paris's Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain (World Festival of the Circus of Tomorrow), created to showcase and promote a new generation of circus performers, mostly trained in circus schools.

In this atmosphere, the Gruss/Fratellini model quickly stimulated other experiments. In 1977, Paul Binder and Michael Christensen , who had performed as jugglers with Fratellini, created the New York School for Circus Arts and its performing branch, the Big Apple Circus , which reintroduced the classical one-ring circus to America. The same year, Bernhard Paul and André Heller created Circus Roncalli in Germany, restoring the lost flamboyance of the German circus of yore.

In 1985, the French government created the Centre National des Arts du Cirque, a professional circus college on the Russian model. Other schools, often private not-for-profit entities and with varying degrees of professionalism, were established in England, Belgium, Sweden, Italy, Australia, Brazil, and the U.S., among others, adding their numbers to the circus schools already in existence in the former Eastern Bloc.

Although China has a 2000-year-old acrobatic theater tradition of its own, its many troupes—similarly to their Russisan counterparts—developed new training method]]s after the Communist revolution and found themselves welcome participants in the circus renaissance. Director Valentin Gneushev (certainly the most influential director in the contemporary circus) opened his own studio in post-communist Moscow, while others opened specialized schools, like André Simard's aerial-act studio, Les Gens d'R, in Canada.

Circus in the 21st Century

The surge of teaching activity led to the creation of a multitude of avant-garde and experimental circus companies in the last decades of the 20th century, especially in England, France, Germany, Australia, and Canada (some of them extremely successful, such as the French "heavy metal" circus Archaos , or the German Circus Flic-Flac ), as well as to a revival of the old variety theater, especially in Germany with the resurgence of German " varieté (German, from the French: ''variété'') A German variety show whose acts are mostly circus acts, performed in a cabaret atmosphere. Very popular in Germany before WWII, Varieté shows have experienced a renaissance since the 1980s. ".

Traditional circuses, however had to face a change of audience's perception regarding animal training, fueled in large part by animal-rights activists—in spite of massive positive changes in the presentation and keeping of wild animals, especially in Europe. This led to a swarm of local legislation that made it often difficult, and oftentimes even impossible for circuses to present wild animal acts. Many circuses had to adapt and gradually give up the presentation of animals, following in that the example of the very successful Cirque du Soleil.

However, in many countries, this had a devastating effect on the circus industry: large traveling circuses that relied in large part on their vast menageries and the presentation of their exotic and wild animals, where forced to dispose of them and eventually closed, thus putting animal trainers ans keepers out of work, and at the same time considerably reducing the employment opportunities for other artists. However, animal acts are still presented by many circuses, notably in Eastern Europe and in Russia, and wherever else they are offered, they largely remain audiences' favorites.

Nonetheless, the circus, which has always been a highly adaptable performing art, is today undergoing important cosmetic changes, but its appeal as an universal form of entertainment remains, and a new expansion is to be expected.

Image Gallery

Philip Astley

The fisrst circus: Astley's Riding School (1777)

Hughes's Royal Circus (1782)

John Bill Ricketts (c.1795)

Laurent Franconi (1800)

Astley's Amphitheatre (1807)

Antonio Franconi (c.1830)

Palmyre Annato (1840)

Circus Chiarini in Japan (1886)

Gaetano Ciniselli

Bertram W. Mills (1923)

Ringling Bros. program cover (1940)

Moscow Circus School (1974)

Student show at the Moscow Circus School (1974)

Paul Binder & Michael Christensen (1982)

Valentin Gneushev (c.1995)

Cirque d'Hiver, Paris (2011)

The Big Apple Circus in New York (2010)

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HISTORY OF THE CIRCUS

Alexandra Maria Ataí

Created on April 11, 2024

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PRESENTATION

VINTAGE CIRCUS

19th Century

present day

Let the show begin!

welcome to the cirus

The circus is the oldest show in the world. For 3,000 years, masters of juggling, contortionism, and balance have been found in places such as China, Greece, India, and Egypt.However, the idea of the circus did not start to take shape until the Middle Ages, when performers began going from village to village showing off their skills as a way of earning a living.

THE BIGGEST SHOW!

HOW ARE YOU?

The modern circus was created by Philip Astley, who, after opening the first show in London starting with horsemen and peculiar forms of riding (and later including acrobats, jugglers, rope balancers and clowns) established himself in Paris.After their time in Paris, the permanent circus began to establish itself in all major cities of Europe, until reaching the USA, where the first street circuses were inaugurated.

Travelling circus

First circus in the USA

First circus in Paris

First circus

the 19th century circus

Circus Tent

Trapeze Artists

THE PRESENT-DAY CIRCUS

More talent

A great deal of effort is made to enhance the artistic skills of the performers that are part of the circus

Animals are prohibited

Today, there are many places where the use of animals in circus shows is prohibited

A variety of options

Today, we have a wide variety of circuses, from traditional ones to superproductions

Albert Einstein

“I have become rather like King Midas, except that everything turns not into gold but into a circus.”

MOST POPULAR CIRCUSES

America’s Big Circus Spectacular Has a Long and Cherished History

The “Greatest Show on Earth” enthralled small-town crowds and had a long-lasting influence on national culture

Janet M. Davis, Zócalo Public Square

When Barnum and Bailey’s “Greatest Show on Earth” rolled into American towns in the 1880s, daily life abruptly stopped. Months before the show arrived, an advance team saturated the surrounding region with brilliantly colored lithographs of the extraordinary: elephants, bearded ladies, clowns, tigers, acrobats and trick riders.

On “Circus Day,” huge crowds gathered to observe the predawn arrival of “herds and droves” of camels, zebras, and other exotic animals—the spoils of European colonialism. Families witnessed the raising of a tented city across nine acres, and a morning parade that made its way down Main Street, advertising the circus as a wondrous array of captivating performers and beasts from around the world.

For isolated American audiences, the sprawling circus collapsed the entire globe into a pungent, thrilling, educational sensorium of sound, smell and color, right outside their doorsteps. What townspeople couldn't have recognized, however, was that their beloved Big Top was also fast becoming a projection of American culture and power. The American three-ring circus came of age at precisely the same historical moment as the U.S. itself.

Three-ring circuses like Barnum and Bailey's were a product of the same Gilded Age historical forces that transformed a fledgling new republic into a modern industrial society and rising world power. The extraordinary success of the giant three-ring circus gave rise to other forms of exportable American giantism, such as amusement parks, department stores, and shopping malls.

The first circuses in America were European—and small. Although circus arts are ancient and transnational in origin, the modern circus was born in England during the 1770s when Philip Astley, a cavalryman and veteran of the Seven Years War (1756-1763), brought circus elements—acrobatics, riding, and clowning—together in a ring at his riding school near Westminster Bridge in London.

One of Astley’s students trained a young Scotsman named John Bill Ricketts , who brought the circus to America. In April of 1793, some 800 spectators crowded inside a walled, open-air, wooden ring in Philadelphia to watch the nation’s first circus performance. Ricketts, a trick rider, and his multicultural troupe of a clown, an acrobat, a rope-walker, and a boy equestrian, dazzled President George Washington and other audience members with athletic feats and verbal jousting.

Individual performers had toured North America for decades, but this event marked the first coordinated performance in a ring encircled by an audience. Circuses in Europe appeared in established urban theater buildings, but Ricketts had been forced to build his own wooden arenas because American cities along the Eastern Seaboard had no entertainment infrastructure. Roads were so rough that Ricketts' troupe often traveled by boat. They performed for weeks at a single city to recoup the costs of construction. Fire was a constant threat due to careless smokers and wooden foot stoves. Soon facing fierce competition from other European circuses hoping to supplant his success in America, Ricketts sailed for the Caribbean in 1800. While returning to England at the end of the season, he was lost at sea.   

After the War of 1812, American-born impresarios began to dominate the business. In 1825, Joshua Purdy Brown, a showman born in Somers, New York, put a distinctly American stamp on the circus. In the midst of the evangelical Second Great Awakening (1790-1840), an era of religious revivalism and social reform, city leaders in Wilmington, Delaware banned public amusements from the city. Brown stumbled upon the prohibition during his tour and had to think fast to outwit local authorities, so he erected a canvas “pavilion circus” just outside the city limits.

Brown’s adoption of the canvas tent revolutionized the American circus , cementing its identity as an itinerant form of entertainment. Capital expenses for tenting equipment and labor forced constant movement, which gave rise to the uniquely American one-day stand. On the frontier edges of society, entertainment-starved residents flocked to the tented circus, which plodded by horse, wagon, and boat, pushing westward and southward as the nation’s borders expanded.

The railroad was the single most important catalyst for making the circus truly American. Just weeks after the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in May 1869, Wisconsin showman Dan Castello took his circus—including two elephants and two camels—from Omaha to California on the new railroad. Traveling seamlessly on newly standardized track and gauge, his season was immensely profitable.

P.T. Barnum , already a veteran amusement proprietor, recognized opportunity when he saw it. He had set a bar for giantism when he entered the circus business in 1871, staging a 100-wagon “Grand Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan, and Circus.” The very next year, Barnum’s sprawling circus took to the rails. His partner William Cameron Coup designed a new flatcar and wagon system which allowed laborers to roll fully loaded wagons on and off the train.

Barnum and Coup were outrageously successful, and their innovations pushed the American circus firmly into the combative scrum of Gilded Age capitalism. Before long, size and novelty determined a show’s salability. Rival showmen quickly copied Barnum’s methods. Competition was fierce. Advance teams posting lithographs for competing shows occasionally erupted in brawls when their paths crossed.

In 1879, James A. Bailey, whose circus was fresh off a two-year tour of Australia, New Zealand, and South America, scooped Barnum when one of his elephants became the first to give birth in captivity at his show’s winter quarters in Philadelphia. Barnum was begrudgingly impressed—and the rivals merged their operations at the end of 1880. Like other big businesses during the Gilded Age, the largest railroad shows were always prowling to purchase other circuses.

Railroad showmen embraced popular Horatio Alger “rags-to-riches” mythologies of American upward mobility. They used their own spectacular ascent to advertise the moral character of their shows. Bailey had been orphaned at eight, and had run away with a circus in 1860 at the age of 13 to escape his abusive older sister. The five Ringling brothers, whose circus skyrocketed from a puny winter concert hall show in the early 1880s to the world’s largest railroad circus in 1907, were born poor to an itinerant harness maker and spent their childhood eking out a living throughout the Upper Midwest.

These self-made American impresarios built an American cultural institution that became the nation’s most popular family amusement. Barnum and Bailey's big top grew to accommodate three rings, two stages, an outer hippodrome track for chariot races, and an audience of 10,000. Afternoon and evening performances showcased new technologies such as electricity, safety bicycles, automobiles, and film; they included reenactments of current events, such as the building of the Panama Canal.

By the end of the century, circuses had entertained and educated millions of consumers about the wider world, and employed over a thousand people. Their moment had come. In late 1897, Bailey took his giant Americanized circus to Europe for a five-year tour, just as the U.S. was coming into its own as a mature industrial powerhouse and mass cultural exporter.

Bailey transported the entire three-ring behemoth to England by ship. The parade alone dazzled European audiences so thoroughly that many went home afterwards mistakenly thinking they had seen the entire show. In Germany, the Kaiser’s army followed the circus to learn its efficient methods for moving thousands of people, animals, and supplies. Bailey included patriotic spectacles reenacting key battle scenes from the Spanish-American War in a jingoistic advertisement of America’s rising global status.

Bailey’s European tour was a spectacular success, but his personal triumph was fleeting. He returned to the United States in 1902 only to discover that the upstart Ringling Brothers now controlled the American circus market.

When Bailey died unexpectedly in 1906, and the Panic of 1907 sent financial markets crashing shortly thereafter, the Ringlings were able to buy his entire circus for less than $500,000. They ran the two circuses separately until federal restrictions during World War I limited the number of railroad engines they could use. Thinking the war would continue for many years, the Ringlings decided to consolidate the circuses temporarily for the 1919 season to meet federal wartime regulations.

The combined show made so much money that the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey’s Circus became permanent—known as "The Greatest Show on Earth"—until earlier this year, when, after 146 years, it announced it would close .

The Smithsonian Folklife Festival celebrates its 50th anniversary this year with an exploration of the life and work of circus people today.  "Circus Arts"  performances, food and workshops take place on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., June 29 to July 4 and July 6 to July 9.  

Janet M. Davis teaches American Studies and History at the University of Texas at Austin. She is the author of The Gospel of Kindness: Animal Welfare and the Making of Modern America (2016); The Circus Age: American Culture and Society Under the Big Top (2002); and editor of Circus Queen and Tinker Bell: The Life of Tiny Kline (2008).

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Founded in 1939, the Circus Historical Society is a tax exempt not-for-profit educational organization dedicated to preserving the rich history of circus.  The Society’s membership includes a diverse selection of scholars, researchers, educators, archivists, curators, librarians, circus professionals and enthusiasts united with the common goal of documenting circus history and disseminating circus information.

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The dates and location of the 2025 Circus Historical Society Convention will be announced here in the Fall of 2024.

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The mission of the Circus Historical Society is to preserve, promote and share though education, the history and cultural significance of the circus and allied arts, past and present.

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Welcome to the Circus Historical Society website!  Please feel free to explore our “web lot” and discover the fascinating history of the circus. If you are not already a member, please join and attend one of our annual conventions.  CHS members receive our beautiful Bandwagon journal and have exclusive access to our Members Only online research resources, Bookstore, and other benefits.

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• How to Write a Thesis Statement | 4 Steps & Examples

How to Write a Thesis Statement | 4 Steps & Examples

Published on January 11, 2019 by Shona McCombes . Revised on August 15, 2023 by Eoghan Ryan.

A thesis statement is a sentence that sums up the central point of your paper or essay . It usually comes near the end of your introduction .

Your thesis will look a bit different depending on the type of essay you’re writing. But the thesis statement should always clearly state the main idea you want to get across. Everything else in your essay should relate back to this idea.

You can write your thesis statement by following four simple steps:

• Start with a question
• Write your initial answer
• Develop your answer
• Refine your thesis statement

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Table of contents

What is a thesis statement, placement of the thesis statement, step 1: start with a question, step 2: write your initial answer, step 3: develop your answer, step 4: refine your thesis statement, types of thesis statements, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about thesis statements.

A thesis statement summarizes the central points of your essay. It is a signpost telling the reader what the essay will argue and why.

The best thesis statements are:

• Concise: A good thesis statement is short and sweet—don’t use more words than necessary. State your point clearly and directly in one or two sentences.
• Contentious: Your thesis shouldn’t be a simple statement of fact that everyone already knows. A good thesis statement is a claim that requires further evidence or analysis to back it up.
• Coherent: Everything mentioned in your thesis statement must be supported and explained in the rest of your paper.

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The thesis statement generally appears at the end of your essay introduction or research paper introduction .

The spread of the internet has had a world-changing effect, not least on the world of education. The use of the internet in academic contexts and among young people more generally is hotly debated. For many who did not grow up with this technology, its effects seem alarming and potentially harmful. This concern, while understandable, is misguided. The negatives of internet use are outweighed by its many benefits for education: the internet facilitates easier access to information, exposure to different perspectives, and a flexible learning environment for both students and teachers.

You should come up with an initial thesis, sometimes called a working thesis , early in the writing process . As soon as you’ve decided on your essay topic , you need to work out what you want to say about it—a clear thesis will give your essay direction and structure.

You might already have a question in your assignment, but if not, try to come up with your own. What would you like to find out or decide about your topic?

For example, you might ask:

After some initial research, you can formulate a tentative answer to this question. At this stage it can be simple, and it should guide the research process and writing process .

Now you need to consider why this is your answer and how you will convince your reader to agree with you. As you read more about your topic and begin writing, your answer should get more detailed.

In your essay about the internet and education, the thesis states your position and sketches out the key arguments you’ll use to support it.

The negatives of internet use are outweighed by its many benefits for education because it facilitates easier access to information.

In your essay about braille, the thesis statement summarizes the key historical development that you’ll explain.

The invention of braille in the 19th century transformed the lives of blind people, allowing them to participate more actively in public life.

A strong thesis statement should tell the reader:

• Why you hold this position
• What they’ll learn from your essay
• The key points of your argument or narrative

The final thesis statement doesn’t just state your position, but summarizes your overall argument or the entire topic you’re going to explain. To strengthen a weak thesis statement, it can help to consider the broader context of your topic.

These examples are more specific and show that you’ll explore your topic in depth.

Your thesis statement should match the goals of your essay, which vary depending on the type of essay you’re writing:

• In an argumentative essay , your thesis statement should take a strong position. Your aim in the essay is to convince your reader of this thesis based on evidence and logical reasoning.
• In an expository essay , you’ll aim to explain the facts of a topic or process. Your thesis statement doesn’t have to include a strong opinion in this case, but it should clearly state the central point you want to make, and mention the key elements you’ll explain.

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

• Ad hominem fallacy
• Post hoc fallacy
• Appeal to authority fallacy
• False cause fallacy
• Sunk cost fallacy

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A thesis statement is a sentence that sums up the central point of your paper or essay . Everything else you write should relate to this key idea.

The thesis statement is essential in any academic essay or research paper for two main reasons:

• It gives your writing direction and focus.
• It gives the reader a concise summary of your main point.

Without a clear thesis statement, an essay can end up rambling and unfocused, leaving your reader unsure of exactly what you want to say.

Follow these four steps to come up with a thesis statement :

• Ask a question about your topic .
• Write your initial answer.
• Develop your answer by including reasons.
• Refine your answer, adding more detail and nuance.

The thesis statement should be placed at the end of your essay introduction .

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