Circus Arts

A fifth-grade student explains the engineering process with clowns Karen Bell and Robin Eurich.

Photo by Daniel Perales, courtesy of University of South Florida

A first-grade student spins a plate in the Circus Sarasota Big Top with the Build-a-Circus program.

Photo by Rick Purdue, courtesy of University of South Florida

A first grader triumphantly holds up his plate after successfully spinning it in the Circus Sarasota Big Top with Build-a-Circus.

Photo by Rick Purdue, courtesy of University of South Florida

Second graders reenact the children’s book Mirette on the High Wire by Emily Arnold McCully with clown Karen Bell.

Photo courtesy of University of South Florida

Fifth graders investigate force and motion through the teeterboard circus act.

Photo courtesy of University of South Florida

Build-a-Circus offers students a chance to perform while using teamwork, circus-style!

Photo by Rick Purdue, courtesy of University of South Florida

“How do they do that?” is a question frequently murmured by spectators, as circus artists appear to defy gravity and other earthly limitations.

Of course, circus artists cannot “defy” gravity any more than the rest of us, but they can learn how to use gravity and other principles of science to their advantage. Over the centuries, many circus arts have relied on a thorough understanding of biology, chemistry, engineering, linguistics, mathematics, physics, and more. Circus artists and related professionals may instinctively understand many of these scientific connections, but they are rarely introduced or explained for the general public.

Circus performers, riggers, and prop and equipment designers also use scientific principles to keep both artists and spectators safe. The synergy of science and skill is now routinely taught as part of circus training, but some principles are understood innately by the complex sensory machine that is the human body.

At the Folklife Festival, the Florida Center for Partnerships for Arts-Integrated Teaching (PAInT), based at the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee, worked with artists from the Circus Arts Conservatory and educators from the Smithsonian to provide experiential lessons about circus science.

Through demonstrations and hands-on activities, kids learned how universal laws of science and engineering not only enable and explain so many circus arts and skills, but also affect the design and operation of many circus-related props, equipment, and performance spaces.