2017 American Youth Circus Festival

Sometimes the difference between a circus act that’s physically amazing but doesn’t quite move or reach us, and one that’s not only technical but also thematically or emotionally resonant and memorable, is whether the act (and its tricks) are grounded in something authentic, coming from a desire to communicate something, or evocative of an aspect of the human experience. We’ll talk about tools that circus can (and often does) borrow from theater—exploring choices about character, need, actions, change, and relationships to time, space, apparatus, and audience. And we’ll be watching and analyzing video clips of a variety of circus acts and discussing the artistic choices that have helped make these acts so striking. Finally, we'll talk about how to gather feedback on a new piece in a way that's safe, validating, and as useful to the artist as possible.