Circuses Are Fading Into The Past

 When I was younger, I remember getting excited when the circus came to town.  One didn't see elephants, or clowns that often so it was a treat to be taken to enjoy watching them in action.  Unfortunately, time has not been nice to them.

Circuses originated in Ancient Rome as a place for displaying horsemanship, equestrian ability, and gladiator skills.  What we think of as a circus appearing in the mid 1700's when Philip Astley created the first modern circus in England.

Over time, things were added until we have the midway and the big tent with all the great acts.  In the 1800's, circuses began flourishing in the United States and names such as Barnum and Bailey emerged as forerunners.  In addition, what was popular in a circus changed over time such as the "freak" show began fading away as people's perspective changed along with the change in how animals were treated.  Barnum and Bailey, one of the last famous circuses, closed in 2017 after being sued by animal rights activists, bad press, and published videos caused ticket sales to drop drastically, forcing them to close.

There are still some traditional circuses around but they are not as prevalent as before.  Some of the remaining circuses include the Big Apple Circus, The Cole-All-Star Circus, Bindlestiff Family Cirkus, Carden Circus International, Circus Bella, and others.  These operate differently than the traditional ones did.  Many of these work with schools to perform in school auditoriums, or with communities to perform in parks or with shriners.  These groups are more community oriented than the original ones.

At the same time, jugglers added objects to their repertoire, the young wanted to return to a single ring rather than competing in three rings, and the new circus movement was born in the 1970's.  One of the biggest acts coming out of that is Cirque du Soliel .  In reality, the new circus movement gave theatre people a new outlet for their type of performances.  Instead of always being held outdoors in tents, these circuses can also be found in theaters and on stages.  There are seldom any animal acts, relaying on human acts instead.  Furthermore, these new circuses prefer using stories and more character based acts, etc.

So the traditional circus with hundreds of people and animals are being replaced with smaller units that do not travel across the country but focus more on certain regional areas.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.