Suddenly circus is sexy — and it has little to do with the clowns in honky cars and trapeze artists in spangly Lycra we remember from our childhood. This week’s rebranding of Hoxton’s Circus Space, now to be known as the National Centre for Circus Arts, marks the coming of age for the athletic entertainment and finally confirms it as an art form in its own right.
Circus, which has its roots in London (ex-cavalryman Philip Astley opened Astley’s Amphitheatre in Waterloo in 1768 to show off his trick-riding skills), has been gathering momentum over the past few years and can now compete with dance, theatre or opera, progressing from fringe concern to major audience draw.
As well as the ever-popular annual visits of Cirque du Soleil, more creative and leftfield shows have become regulars from around the world, whether large-scale spectacle (De La Guarda, Fuerzabruta) or smaller, more innovative companies at Jackson’s Lane, Sadler’s Wells, the Barbican and Camden’s Roundhouse.
In NW1, the venue has been building on CircusFest, its annual gathering of some of the most interesting contemporary acts, since 2007 and hosts its biggest festival yet this year, with five weeks of events that show how broad modern circus’s appeal now is.
Five best circus performances to see at CircusFest
There is a new wave of British circus talent coming through, much of it trained on the National Centre for Circus Arts’ own BA degree course, and there has been a drive to keep graduates working here rather than see them disappear abroad. Alongside established home-grown troupes such as NoFit State Circus there have been breakthroughs from new companies, including Ockham’s Razor, which combines stomach-lurching aerial skills with a real sense of warmth and wonder.
The proliferation of youth circus groups has clearly inspired a new generation. London 2012 also encouraged young people to get involved in the art after seeing performers showcased in the opening and closing ceremonies. The boom in summer festivals and the growing popularity of cabaret have played their part in introducing the discipline to a wider audience, too.
The buzz-phrase, these days, is contemporary circus, which means art, not just entertainment. It’s about experimenting with the form itself, overturning tradition, addressing real-world issues and making the audience’s brains tick, as well as their jaws drop.
Circus provokes visceral reactions and unlike, say, theatre, which talks about the big stuff of life, circus embodies them — risk, trust, fear, freedom, life and death — in every step. Go on, give it a try.
National Centre for Circus Arts, N1 (nationalcircusorg.uk) runs Saturday Experience Days when the public can try circus skills including trapeze, acrobatics and juggling. £69 for anyone over 17; £50 for eight- to 16-year-olds
