A Circus

A circus as everyone knows is a company of performers that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, hopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, unicyclists, as well as other object manipulation and stunt-oriented artists. The term ‘circus’ also describes the performance, which has followed various formats through its 250-year modern history. Early circuses were almost exclusively demonstrations of equestrian skills with a few other types of acts to link the horsemanship performances. Contemporary circus has been credited with reviving the circus tradition since the 1980s when a number of groups introduced circus based almost solely on human skills and which drew from other performing art skills and styles but even being so, the ‘circus’ is on the dwindle as an art and entertainment.