by Katharine Kavanagh
In the public consciousness at large, something about the image of circus is stuck in a mythologised past somewhere in the mid 20th century. Ask someone today what the word ‘circus’ means to them, and you will most likely still hear ideas about tradition, big tops, and populist entertainment. AI programmes – that trawl the internet to synthesise our human knowledge and regurgitate the most common findings – produce images of red and white striped tents, elephants, red-coated ring-masters and clowns in bright greasepaint. And yet we know there is more out there than that. Like any art form, circus has been a constantly evolving and expanding set of ideas and practices over human history. It was given a name and codified in the late 1700s, but the exact meaning of the word continues to shift and slide, referring variously to types of skill, types of setting, or types of experience. Even the more recent term ‘contemporary circus’ has grown ill-defined, overlapping sometimes with use of the earlier label cirque nouveau (or ‘new circus’); at other times used to mean a particular set of experimental approaches; at others to encompass the entire gamut of circus taking place today, in the contemporary moment. One thing that has remained common to circus history though, is the spirit of remix.
The idea of remix is often associated with internet culture after the advent of web 2.0 at the start of the millennium, when consumers of content also became producers of content; where users now build memes and stitch media into new collaged creations, combining elements shared by others with their own complementary or juxtaposing ideas. Of course, the spirit of remix has been around much longer. Mark Twain famously described a kaleidoscope of creation with the oft-cited phrase “There is no such thing as a new idea”. The same elements continually swirl into new and unforeseen combinations with each artistic turn of the wheel. In particular, remix practices have been central to the hip hop culture that infused both the original iD and its new incarnation, establishing sampling as a musical technique and seeing street dance styles develop from various combined influences of urban communities to fill looped ‘breaks’ in the music.
Photo by Caroline Thibault
In circus, the presence of remix has been less commented upon. In a field where novelty and innovation have long been prized, proprietorial tensions have often arisen, and the idea of ‘stealing’ someone’s act carries a sort of moral horror. But from the earliest days, an ever-shifting amalgamation of skilled physical forms, entertainment ideas and technological capabilities has characterised circus. The same ideas get re-used, upcycled, or reinvented, appearing again at different times and places throughout history. Philip Astley, who is often credited with ‘inventing’ circus, is given the accolade for combining trick horse-riding from his military career with the juggling and acrobatic feats of London street performers and then charging admission for them in a combined programme. Daniel Cyr, one of the Cirque Éloize co-founders, combined concepts from a circular metal clothes rack and a large hula hoop to create the apparatus now named after him – the Cyr wheel. He had been unaware of similar contraptions used by American dancer Doris Humphreys in the 1920s or by German athletes in the 1950s, and Cyr’s literal reinvention of the wheel illustrates the convergent evolution Twain’s kaleidoscopic metaphor for creation hints at.
When the Cyr wheel first appeared in the UK in Cirque Éloize’s Excentricus in 1999, the press gave barely a passing mention to the use of “a giant hoop in place of a German Wheel”. Daniel Cyr was instead applauded and credited in the papers for his acrobatic ladder routine. A quarter of a century on, of course, it is that giant hoop which not only carries his name around the globe, but has become a contemporary staple among circus disciplines (these days, it is the German wheel – a double rimmed structure joined by horizontal bars like a hamster wheel – which is more a rarity).
Photos by Caroline Thibault
That visit to Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1999 was also the first time Cirque Éloize had appeared under a big top. The tent – a staple ingredient of circus expectation for many people – was provided by British circus proprietor Phillip Gandey after he met the company at Monte Carlo International Circus Festival earlier that same year. Éloize director Jeannot Painchaud found that they were “alone as circus at the festival” in Edinburgh, and here again much has changed over the last twenty-six years. The ‘Dance and Physical Theatre’ section of the Fringe programme where Excentricus was listed was renamed ‘Dance, Physical Theatre and Circus’ more than a decade ago, and the 2025 programme lists more than 35 different circus offerings. That Fringe experiment in 1999 was well received, and Éloize were able to return to the UK the following year for a tour of the theatre venues the show was designed for. At that time, it was unusual for circus to be created for a proscenium theatre rather than a ring, although in the early years of the 20th century –and, incidentally, the early years of the 19th century – this was much more common. Now, in the early years of the 21st century, we find circus performances again inhabiting theatres on a regular basis, as well as a further variety of venues: in tents, in the open-air, in bar rooms, in churches and in all manner of other repurposed spaces. Sometimes these shows feature only a single discipline or a solo performer, highlighting different strands of 21st century circus development that now sit alongside the ensemble work and variety format of larger companies like Éloize.
Photo by Caroline Thibault
The performing arts staples of music, dance and drama have always been ingredients of circus, but their recipe has also been remixed at different times to bring different flavours to the fore. In 2010’s original iD, Cirque Éloize brought hip hop and circus together in this spirit of transformation, along with the burgeoning technology of projection mapping. Today, performing circus on a traditional theatre stage is no longer in itself unexpected and fresh; instead, the company’s work expands these conventional venues, transforming spaces through video projection and sound spatialisation. Cirque Éloize are now front runners innovating ways to present circus through multimedia installations and immersive experiences. At home in Montreal the company have their own permanent 360° virtual environment, and advances in both technology and artistry since the premiere of iD in 2010 have led to bespoke creations and to the spectacular new visual projections showcased in iD Reloaded. Director Painchaud has described this new iteration as “more cartoon-like” than its predecessor, and the video designs of Bernard Mauran and Yannick Doucet bring graphic novel influences to the remix.
The futuristic visuals also reflect how urban experience has changed over the last fifteen years. Rollerblading is out, virtual experiences and digital devices are in.
Photo by Caroline Thibault
When audiences experienced the exhilarating trampowall finale of iD for the first time, the young discipline was surprising and novel. YouTube was yet to become a global media platform, Instagram had barely launched and TikTok was still several years away. Now, such feats are made ubiquitous across social media, where the novel quickly becomes prolifically shared and emulated. Today, the novelty comes from witnessing such feats performed live; from sharing the same physical proximity as such online icons.
The remix history of the trampowall – sometimes also called trampoline wall or trampwall – is interesting to trace. The performance discipline was developed by Cirque du Soleil in the 1990s, and was adopted both by other artists and as an extreme sport. The trampoline itself was invented less than a century ago, although the word had been used for various springboard type devices in circus performance previously. Gymnasts George Nissen and Larry Griswold were inspired to build the prototype that would become the modern trampoline by watching trapeze artists land and bounce on their safety nets. Sports, in this case, borrowed from circus and, at the start of the millennium, trampolining became an Olympic event. In the years that followed the pair’s innovation, circus claimed the remixed invention back, spawning clowning acts like Griswold’s own famous routine as a drunkard on a diving board, as well as more aesthetically-driven or thrill-inducing numbers.
Photo by Caroline Thibault
As writer and filmmaker Kirby Ferguson says, “everything is a remix”, with all creation drawing on the three key principles of copying, transforming and combining. Circus has always done this exceptionally well, but it is unusual for a complete production to be re-developed and brought back into the circuit. By reloading iD with an evolved set of skills, technologies and contexts, Cirque Éloize demonstrate again their innovation in the field, as they continue to earn their place as one of the best-loved circus companies in the world.
Dr Katharine Kavanagh is a circus writer, researcher and educator based at Cardiff University. She is the founder of The Circus Diaries, an online platform for critical perspectives on circus performance.
Photos by Caroline Thibault
