ABSTRACT
Part 1 of this chapter, Politics in Contemporary Circus, explores the ways in which the normate, which was promulgated in late-nineteenth-century American Circus, is contested in much politicallydriven Contemporary Circus work. The writing in this section represents the authors’ responses to discussions with creators working in the field of Contemporary Circus. Extracts from these conversations can be found in the Voices section in Part 2.
The ‘normate,’ a term coined by Rosemarie Garland-Thomson in her book, Extraordinary Bodies, refers to an internalised, hidden, socially-constructed figure to which cultural capital accrues because of its external appearance, whose boundaries are formed by the ‘deviant others’ it excludes.
When circus proprietor P.T. Barnum divided his circus into two parts, the big top and the sideshow annexe, he created an architectonic divide which physicalised the social and cultural boundaries of the contemporary ‘normate.’ The performers presented in the sideshow annexe (and excluded from the big top) included the freaks or ‘human curiosities,’ as well as First Nations people, and African American performers, who performed as part of the ‘human menagerie,’ a term popularised by P.T. Barnum.
Much politicallydriven work in Contemporary Circus can be seen as contesting the normate disseminated through Traditional Circus, and which is still prevalent in much Contemporary Circus today. Performers of colour, First Nations performers, performers with adaptive bodies, and queer performers mark out the boundaries of this pervasive, still active normate, and they are now joined by female performers who are often increasingly marginalised in much Contemporary Circus performance.
In Part 2, the Voices section, the authors speak to eight creators whose work actively engages with social and political issues connected with the normate: Mike Finch (Circus Oz), Jennifer Miller (Circus Amok), TildeBjörfors (Circus Cirkör), Kim ‘BustyBeatz’ Bowers (Hot Brown Honey), Phia Ménard (Compagnie Non Nova), Jo Lancaster and Simon Yates (Acrobat), and Fez Faanana (Briefs).
