Download or read book Circus Bodies written by Peta Tait and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2005-11-16 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examining photographs, illustrations, films and live performances, Peta Tait presents an extraordinary survey of 140 years of trapeze acts and the cultural identities that are presented by bodies in fast, physical aerial movement.
Download or read book Circus Bodies written by Peta Tait and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2005-11-16 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This pioneering study is one of the major publications in the increasingly popular and largely undocumented area of circus studies. Through photographs and illustrations, Peta Tait presents an extraordinary survey of 140 years of trapeze acts and the socially changing ideas of muscular action in relation to our understanding of gender and sexuality. She questions how spectators see and enjoy aerial actions, and what cultural identities are presented by bodies in fast, physical aerial movement. Adeptly locating aerial performance within the wider cultural history of bodies and their identities, Circus Bodies explores this subject through a range of films such as Trapeze (1956) and Wings of Desire (1987) and Tait also examines live performances including: * the first trapeze performers: Léotard and the Hanlon Brothers * female celebrities; Azella, Sanyeah, black French aerialist LaLa, the infamous Leona Dare, and the female human cannonballs * twentieth-century gender benders; Barbette and Luisita Leers * the Codonas, Concellos, Gaonas, Vazquez and Pages troupes * imaginative aerial acts in Cirque de Soleil and Circus Oz productions. This book will prove an invaluable resource for all students and scholars interested in this fascinating field.
Download or read book The Cambridge Companion to the Circus written by Gillian Arrighi and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2021-07-01 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Cambridge Companion to the Circus provides a complete guide for students, scholars, teachers, researchers, and practitioners who are seeking perspectives on the foundations and evolution of the modern circus, the contemporary extent of circus studies, and the specialised literature available to support further enquiries. The volume brings together an international group of established and emerging scholars working across the multi-disciplinary domain of circus studies to present a clear overview of the specialised histories, aesthetics and distinctive performances of the modern circus. In sixteen commissioned essays, it covers the origins in commercial equestrian performance during the late-eighteenth century to contemporary inflections of circus arts in major international festivals, educational environments, and social justice settings.
Download or read book Performance Movement and the Body written by Mark Evans and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-01-05 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Investigating a range of influential movement training practices, this ambitious book considers the significance of professional training to performers and their bodies. Performance training approaches are examined within their wider social and cultural contexts, illuminating their evolution in response to the changing context of theatre practice and production. Adopting a rigorous critical angle, Mark Evans' approach is at the cutting-edge of Theatre scholarship, drawing on interviews with recognised practitioners and considering the implications for movement and the body in the digital age. Engaging and enlightening, this is essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students of Theatre, Drama and Performance wishing to understand and contextualise the theories behind performance training.
Download or read book The Routledge Circus Studies Reader written by Peta Tait and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-09-10 with total page 648 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Routledge Circus Studies Reader offers an absorbing critical introduction to this diverse and emerging field. It brings together the work of over 30 scholars in this discipline, including Janet Davis, Helen Stoddart and Peta Tait, to highlight and address the field’s key historical, critical and theoretical issues. It is organised into three accessible sections, Perspectives, Precedents and Presents, which approach historical aspects, current issues, and the future of circus performance. The chapters, grouped together into 13 theme-based sub-sections, provide a clear entry point into the field and emphasise the diversity of approaches available to students and scholars of circus studies. Classic accounts of performance, including pieces by Philippe Petit and Friedrich Nietzsche, are included alongside more recent scholarship in the field. Edited by two scholars whose work is strongly connected to the dynamic world of performance, The Routledge Circus Studies Reader is an essential teaching and study resource for the emerging discipline of circus studies. It also provides a stimulating introduction to the field for lovers of circus.
Download or read book Circus as Multimodal Discourse written by Paul Bouissac and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2012-10-11 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now available in paperback, this volume presents a theory of the circus as a secular ritual and introduces a method to analyze its performances as multimodal discourse. The book's fifteen chapters cover the range of circus specialties (magic, domestic and wild animal training, acrobatics, and clowning) and provide examples to show how cultural meaning is produced, extended and amplified by circus performances. Bouissac is one of the world's leading authorities on circus ethnography and semiotics and this work is grounded on research conducted over a 50 year span in Europe, Asia, Australia and the Americas. It concludes with a reflection on the potentially subversive power of this discourse and its contemporary use by activists. Throughout, it endeavours to develop an analytical approach that is mindful of the epistemological traps of both positivism and postmodernist license. It brings semiotics and ethnography to bear on the realm of the circus.
Download or read book 360 Circus written by Franziska Trapp and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-06-01 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection aims to map a diversity of approaches to the artform by creating a 360° view on the circus. The three sections of the book, Aesthetics, Practice, Culture, approach aesthetic developments, issues of artistic practice, and the circus’ role within society. This book consists of a collection of articles from renowned circus researchers, junior researchers, and artists. It also provides the core statements and discussions of the conference UpSideDown—Circus and Space in a graphic recording format. Hence, it allows a clear entry into the field of circus research and emphasizes the diversity of approaches that are well balanced between theoretical and artistic point of views. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of circus studies, emerging disciples of circus and performance.
Download or read book Circus and the Avant Gardes written by Anna-Sophie Jürgens and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2022-03-15 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines how circus and circus imaginary have shaped the historical avant-gardes at the beginning of the 20th century and the cultures they help constitute, to what extent this is a mutual shaping, and why this is still relevant today. This book aims to produce a better sense of the artistic work and cultural achievements that have emerged from the interplay of circus and avant-garde artists and projects, and to clarify both their transhistorical and trans-medial presence, and their scope for interdisciplinary expansion. Across 14 chapters written by leading scholars – from fields as varied as circus, theatre and performance studies, art, media studies, film and cultural history – some of which are written together with performers and circus practitioners, the book examines to what extent circus and avant-garde connections contribute to a better understanding of early 20th century artistic movements and their enduring legacy, of the history of popular entertainment, and the cultural relevance of circus arts. Circus and the Avant-Gardes elucidates how the realm of the circus as a model, or rather a blueprint for modernist experiment, innovation and (re)negotiation of bodies, has become fully integrated in our ways of perceiving avant-gardes today. The book does not only map the significance of circus/avant-garde phenomena for the past, but, through an exploration of their contemporary actualisations (in different media), also carves out their achievements, relevance, and impact, both cultural and aesthetic, on the present time.
Download or read book Contemporary Circus written by Katie Lavers and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-07-08 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this volume, twenty-four creators come together with three scholars to discuss Contemporary Circus, bridging the divide between practice and theory. Lavers, Leroux, and Burtt offer conversations across four key themes: Apparatus, Politics, Performers, and New Work. Extensively illustrated with fifty photos of Contemporary Circus productions, and extensively annotated, Contemporary Circus thematically groups and contextualises extracts of conversations to provide a sophisticated and wide-ranging study supported by critical theory. Of interest to both practitioners and scholars, Contemporary Circus uses the lens of ‘contestation,’ or calling things into question, to provide a portal into ways of seeing today’s circus performance. Conversations with: Lachlan Binns and Jascha Boyce (Gravity and Other Myths), Tilde Björfors (Cirkus Cirkör), Kim ‘Busty Beatz’ Bowers (Hot Brown Honey), Shana Carroll (The 7 Fingers), David Clarkson (Stalker), Philippe Decouflé (Compagnie DCA), Fez Faanana (Briefs), Mike Finch (Circus Oz), Daniele Finzi Pasca (Compagnia Finzi Pasca), Sean Gandini (Gandini Juggling), Firenza Guidi (ElanFrantoio, NoFit State Circus), Jo Lancaster and Simon Yates (Acrobat), Johann Le Guillerm (Cirque Ici), Yaron Lifschitz (Circa), Chelsea McGuffin (Company 2), Phia Ménard (Compagnie Non Nova), Jennifer Miller (Circus Amok), Adrien Mondot (Compagnie Adrien M and Claire B), Charlotte Mooney and Tina Koch (Ockham’s Razor), Philippe Petit (high wire artist), and Elizabeth Streb (STREB EXTREME ACTION).
Download or read book The End of the Circus written by Paul Bouissac and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-08-12 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book analyses two features of the traditional circus that have come under increasing attack since the mid-20th century: the use of wild animals in performance and the act of clowning. Positioning this socio-cultural change within the broader perspective of evolutionary semiotics, renowned circus expert Paul Bouissac examines the decline of the traditional circus and its transformation into a purely acrobatic spectacle. The End of the Circus draws on Bouissac's extensive ethnographic research, including previously unpublished material on the training of wild animals and clown make-up, to chart the origins of the circus in Gypsy culture and the drastic change in contemporary Western attitudes on ethical grounds. It scrutinizes the emergence of the new form of circus, with its focus on acrobatics and the meaning of the body, showing how acrobatic techniques have been appropriated from traditional Gypsy heritage and brought into the fold of mainstream popular entertainment. Questioning the survival of the new circus and the likely resurgence of its traditional forms, this book showcases Bouissac's innovative approach to semiotics and marks the culmination of his ground-breaking work on the circus.
Download or read book The Many Worlds of Circus written by Robert Sugarman and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2009-05-27 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Acrobats and manipulators of objects, trained animals, and clowns – have been performing throughout history. In the eighteenth century, the invention of the circus ring provided a focus for the activities, and the modern circus was born. Once the circus was the most spectacular entertainment many Americans saw. When the supply of cheap labor disappeared and other forms of entertainment became available, the giant circuses shrank, and in the last quarter of the twentieth century new one ring circuses returned. The Circus and Circus Culture area of the Popular Culture Association has been examining circus history, circus life, the relationship of circus to society, and the impact of circus on the visual and literary arts since 1997. This book is a collection of papers from its annual conferences. "This fascinating collection showcases the transnational richness and cultural depth of the circus in an array of historical and contemporary settings. Strongly recommended for circus enthusiasts and students of popular culture, history, and theater." —Janet M.Davis, Associate Professor, Chair of the Department of American Studies, College of Liberal Arts at UT Austin, author of The Circus Age: Culture and Society under the American Big Top
Download or read book Homemade Academic Circus written by Camilla Damkjaer and published by John Hunt Publishing. This book was released on 2016-06-24 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book takes its starting point in a rare experiment, that of an academic researcher attempting to learn to do circus. What happens to the knowledge of the performance theoretician when physically engaging with the circus arts? One of the (im)material outcomes of this experiment is what the author calls "homemade academic circus” - a series of lecture-performances on performance-related academic questions, presented and discussed through circus disciplines. The interest of homemade academic circus, and the analysis of it presented in this book, lies not only in the fact that it is a form of curiosity within academic research. It is also worth noting that the main character in this experiment (sometimes known as the “professional amateur” or the “academic freak”, the alter egos of the researcher) goes through the opposite process of what many artists within artistic and practice-based research experience today. What happens if, rather than going from art to academia, one would go from academia to art? Which cultural and paradigmatic shocks would that produce, and how would that influence the researcher’s understanding of knowledge and thinking?
Download or read book Rings of Desire written by Helen Stoddart and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The circus has been both one of the most influential forms of international popular entertainment and yet at the same time remains almost entirely absent from academic studies of popular theatrical forms. This book offers readers an introduction to the cultural history of the circus and gives an account of the dominant characteristics of the circus's aesthetic practices and relates these to the sometimes precarious developments, changes and variations in its economic organization, architecture and social status. The book goes on to outline the particular challenges that this essentially live, dangerous and body-centred form presents to literary and film representation and does so through the particular examples of works by Charles Dickens, Federico Fellini and Wim Wenders. This wide-ranging and accessible book offers ways of thinking about the meaning and significance of the circus as a specifically modern form of art and entertainment.
Download or read book The Commercial Vehicle written by and published by . This book was released on 1916 with total page 1116 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Readings of Contemporary Circus written by Franziska Trapp and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-08-27 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What are the characteristics of contemporary circus? In what way does contemporary circus differ from theater, dance, and performance? Where do hybrid forms exist? Where are there observable commonalities? Despite the diversity of contemporary circus performances, are there generalizable characteristics that unite the performances? What potential do these questions have for dramaturgical practice? This book adapts a cultural-semiotic approach to analyze contemporary circus performances. It offers the first comprehensive documentation and interpretation of the art form based on the reading theories of cultural, literature, theater, and dance studies. The volume thereby provides a dramaturgy of contemporary circus, which reveals its generalizable characteristics, fundamental techniques and structures, and the effects they produce. At the same time, theories and methods are modified and further developed regarding the characteristics of the circus. This book is designed for students and scholars in the field of theater and performance studies, as well as for artists, dramaturges, and directors working in the field of circus.
Download or read book Women of the American Circus 1880 1940 written by Katherine H. Adams and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2012-10-16 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the years 1880 to 1940, the glory days of the American circus, a third to a half of the cast members were women--a large group of very visible American workers whose story needs telling. This book, using sources such as diaries, autobiographies, newspaper accounts, films, posters, and route books, first considers the popular media's presentation of these performers as unnatural and scandalous--as well as romantic and thrilling. Next are the stories told by circus women, which contradict and complicate other versions of their lives. Across America in those years an array of acts featured women, such as tableaux, freak shows, girlie shows, tiger acts, and aerial performances, all involving special skills and all detailed here. The book offers a unique and fascinating view of not just the circus but of what it meant to be an American woman at work.
Download or read book Circus Science and Technology written by Anna-Sophie Jürgens and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-06-22 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the circus as a site in and through which science and technology are represented in popular culture. Across eight chapters written by leading scholars – from fields as varied as performance and circus studies, art, media and cultural history, and engineering – the book discusses to what extent the engineering of circus and performing bodies can be understood as a strategy to promote awe, how technological inventions have shaped circus and the cultures it helps constitute, and how much of a mutual shaping this is. What kind of cultural and aesthetic effects does engineering in circus contexts achieve? How do technological inventions and innovations impact on the circus? How does the link between circus and technology manifest in representations and interpretations – imaginaries – of the circus in other media and popular culture? Circus, Science and Technology examines the ways circus can provide a versatile frame for interpreting our relationship with technology.
