Re-imagining the development of circus artists for the twenty-first century

Abstract

Circus performances now take numerous, diverse forms and these demand a new kind of circus performer, one who is adaptable, self-motivated and creatively innovative. The article argues that much current circus training is out of sync with the new requirements of this evolving industry. It re-imagines the development of elite circus artists, proposing an approach to training performers so that they are not only able to perform their ‘acts’ at the highest technical and artistic level, but are also able to function well as self-motivated, self-regulated, multi-disciplinary artists who are creatively innovative. The article outlines ‘Integrated Training’, an innovative approach to training physical skills developed by Jon Burtt, in which a focus is proposed which includes, alongside the development of high-level physical skills, attention to the development and training of cognitive skills such as self-efficacy and self-regulation, and the constructing of learning and teaching environments that effectively enhance creativity. The article proposes that Integrated Training has the potential to provide an effective basis for the development of the new kinds of artists currently required for the circus arts industry.

Keywords:

• contemporary circus
• circus training
• cognitive
• behaviourist
• Decision Training
• Integrated Training

Notes

¹ Self-regulation (sometimes termed self-regulated learning) is learning in which students are cognitively active in their own learning processes. Although it has long been argued by educational researchers that this is a crucial ingredient for transformative learning, and although it has been discussed in relation to sports training through the work of sports psychologists such as Laura Jonker and colleagues (2010), the concept is only just being considered in relation to performance practices that span the domains of both sport and the arts, such as circus training

(Lafortune et al. 2016).

Salmerón-Pérez et al. (2010, p. 2) argue that self-regulated learners learn ‘through experience’ and from this ‘they construct meaning, objectives, self-efficacy, beliefs, and learning strategies’. Self-regulation theory (SRT) associated with Barry Zimmerman and Dale Schunk (2011) built on the ideas of cognitive psychologist Albert Bandura’s (1977) social cognitive theory that describes how:

Individuals possess a self system that enables them to exercise a measure of control over their thoughts, feelings, motivation, and actions. This self system provides reference mechanisms and a set of subfunctions for perceiving, regulating, and evaluating behavior, which results from the interplay between the system and environmental sources of influence. As such, it serves a self-regulatory function by providing individuals with the capability to influence their own cognitive processes and actions and thus alter their environments. (Pajares 1997, p. 1)

Self-efficacy, or the belief in one’s ability to succeed in a particular task or skill, is a concept derived from Bandura’s social cognitive theory and inherently linked to the idea of intrinsic motivation, which is self-derived and self-directed: ‘In order to succeed, people need a sense of self-efficacy, to struggle together with resilience to meet the inevitable obstacles and inequities of life’ (Bandura 1977, p. x).

² ‘Modern Circus’ is the name widely given to the form of circus performed from the time Philip Astley presented the first equestrian spectacles in London in 1768 up to the rise of New Circus in the mid-1970s (Maleval 2016, p. 51).

‘New Circus’ is the name given to a form of circus emerging in the late 1970s, which is often described as emerging from the political upheavals of 1968. New Circus challenged all the iconic elements of Modern Circus, abandoning the use of wild animals, avoiding for the most part the use of horses, jettisoning the iconic imagery of the Ringmaster and the circus ring, often preferring to perform within theatre venues rather than in a big top.

‘Contemporary circus’ is the term now used for ‘New Circus’, as after more than 40 years the name began to seem inappropriate.