Day 2: Keynote Address by Annabel Arndt

Annabel Arndt is the Director of Total Theatre Network and will explain some of the experiences of setting up The Circus Arts Forum in the UK. The first half of her talk was about the state of Circus in the UK, then she talked about the practicalities of setting up an association.

Have identified 2 different types of circus performance in the UK, traditional tented circus and everything else. Philosophies are completely different but both sides are working together in the Circus Arts Forum.

1. Traditional and mostly commercial

Most obvious distinguishing feature is the tent! Could be a circus such as Gerry Cottle's Circus or Circus of Horrors, could be a family run circus such as Bobby Roberts, could be Zippo's or Gerry Cottle produced Moscow and Chinese State Circuses. Tend to perform in parks, commons, and greens. Some have animals, some do not. Two purpose built circus spaces in Britain which put on traditional and commercial circuses, the Hippodrome in Great Yarmouth and the Grand at Blackpool. There are about 10 nationally touring tented circuses in the UK at the moment.

This type of circus has a very distinctive style, often spangled costumes, with one act after another. The traditional circus has a universal language. Unlike its contemporary cousin, the same show can be enjoyed in Moscow, Iceland, America, and Australia with no explanation. It has universal appeal.

3 particularities of this kind of circus worth mentioning:

1. Animals: Fewer companies perform with them, local government tends to not like animals in circuses but has very confused policies. An episode which did more to alter audience's perceptions of circus animals than any other is that of a film shown on TV of Mary Chipperfield apparently beating and/or kicking a chimp. Was a very distressing incident and caused damage to those who take a pride in their careful and humane treatment of animals in their care, an example being Zippo who has a very strict code of conduct developed with the International League for the Protection of Horses which the Home Office is likely to adopt. Further licensing is also likely to come in, which many are welcoming.
2. Tour schedules: Very secretive. The reason is that all circuses are scared that another circus will perform on adjoining land and open a few days before, maybe with even a similar name. They are remarkably good at marketing given the constraints in which they operate. Although one circus owner did say that he wanted help in this area.
3. Education: The Traveller Education Service places children in schools as the circus tours. Before this some circuses would employ a teacher but this works better, and in fact children do better than the child who stays in the same school. Foreign children get educated twice, once at home in their own language and once at school which results in the multilingual nature of many.

2. Contemporary Circus/Circus Arts/New Circus

1. Individual circus acts: Often perform as part of a festival, often outdoors or in a tent, might be on the Street, on the beach. There are a very large number of individual circus acts around. Many have come out of training at circus schools where like-minded people have put acts together which are shown at a variety of places such as the dome, cabarets, corporate events etc. eg. The Flying Dudes who you will see on video. They are that rare thing a... UK flying trapeze act who successfully received funding from the Arts Council of England for the first time. They perform at festivals around the country and train around 4 half days per week at the Circus Space which they pay for themselves.
2. Lone Performer: Often performs at urban free festivals. S/he mostly operates completely outside the funding system and relies on busking to fund self, which can be lucrative. Incidentally this group of performer is very difficult to represent as they are very difficult to get in touch with sometimes living nomadic lives.
3. Circus/Physical theatre where the circus comes first: Circus skills are incorporated into shows as trained circus performers develop their show theatrically and produce a show which is a mixture of theatre and circus. This becomes a seamless part of their work and can be almost secondary to the story. Eg. No Ordinary Angels, a show which we gave an award to in Edinburgh last year and opened the London International Mime Festival last year. Performed by Deb Pope from New Zealand and Rodrigo Mattheus from Brazil. Clowns also often provide a bridge between circus and theatre.
4. Circus Integrated into other artforms ie. circus is the window dressing, the add on: Circus is being used progressively in traditional opera and theatre and pantomime as Directors are enjoying the extra dimension which circus brings. Unfortunately there is no real evidence that audiences are encouraged to go and see other forms of circus. People often don't realise that they are actually seeing circus. What is particular here is that performers skills are used, not their acts. It is not new to find circus integrated in this way.
5. Corporate events and advertising: This area is growing rapidly, it is a means for circus performers to make some money. The corporate world likes what Charlie Holland of the Circus Space describes as the "oooh.. aaaah.. ha-ha.. ugh factor" of Circus. Corporate world has sizeable funds earmarked. Showed examples on video of large scale corporate circus events.
6. Circus in traditional theatre spaces: I could' t think of a single UK company which fell into this category at the moment except for circus acts in cabarets and comedy clubs. All those I can think of are international ones such as Circus Oz, who have been selling out in London, De La Guarda who achieved a cult following but did they describe themselves as circus? or Cirque de Soleil who are planning a season in London at the end of the year and are part of major development at Battersea Power Station in London so will have a permanent base there.

The London International Mime Festival has also been bringing circus to their festivals throughout their existence, but international ones.

This does bring us on to the dome show (Millennium Dome), the only part of the dome which is universally liked by visitors. But make up your own minds when you see the video. The show achieved the non-artistic aims, which were to provide good rates of pay, have a representative work force and leave those involved better trained and more qualified than before. Cast and crew training has continued throughout the year-long life of the show.

New techniques have also been developed, particularly with regard to rigging. The Generating Company is a proposed project coming off the back of the Millennium dome show and spear-headed by the Circus Space. The project has been designed to maximise the opportunity and investment made in the Dome Show and establish a large-scale contemporary circus company which can tour in large spaces. Watch this space.

Training

Where do people train? There are now 6 circus schools, The Circus Space in London, Circomedia in Bristol, Belfast Circus School, Green Top in Sheffield, Skylight in Rochdale and Zippos. But it is Circus Space and Circomedia who offer full time training. Both of these schools have different slants with Circomedia being more performance based and Circus Space more skills based. Circus Space is currently offering a degree in circus, the first institution in Europe to do so.

The first specialist school was set up by Gerry Cottle in 1984 when he recruited around 15 people, although not still in existence. Zippos has a circus academy attached to their tented circus where students learn about all aspects of traditional circus from performing to putting up the tent.

Community circuses such as Cambridge Community Circus, Belfast Community Circus or Skylight in Rochdale have a big role to play.

Reg Bolton talks in detail in his book 'Circus in a Box' about the positive effect community circus can have in depressed areas in rebuilding esteem and pride when he started a community circus in Pilton in Scotland. The Belfast one is building bridges in a very troubled area. All over the country people are taking part in evening classes, residencies, juggling conventions, workshops at festivals, try out sessions at circus schools, or they are working towards their Circus A level or their girl guide badge in circus skills.

An issue, which is talked about at length in the UK, is that of circus trainers. It is seen as a real problem that those who teach are not able to increase their skills and progress and if this happens what will happen to the skill levels of their pupils? There are 2 projects which are trying to address this: The Circus Space has received London Development Agency funding which offers tailor-made intensive training for professional circus performers and teachers. CircElation is a project which encourages collaboration between circus performers and theatre directors and will look at the way in which the two can work together.

How is Circus seen in this country?

By audiences:

Circus interest is increasing massively, except people don t always understand they are seeing circus. Audiences are very different for the different types of circus and rarely cross over the boundaries, performers the same? To generalise, Cirque de Soleil attracts the opera and straight theatre crowd, De La Guarda, the young dance music crowd and traditional circus the family audience. And they don t mix much.

By Funders/Government etc:

In 1995/6, The Arts Council of England funded circus to the tune of £11,800 for national projects 0.07% of the money spent by that sub department of the performing arts department. This compares with 10% in Australia's entire performing arts department. I'm pleased to say that things have changed for the better but there is still no treasury money committed to circus. There has been no investment in production since Ra Ra Zoo which was around 1992. Only 0.001% of total lottery capital spend was on circus.

By those in Industry:

Circus is seen as booming, but there is the fear that there will not be enough work to go around when the boom/trend ends. Contemporary circus performers are finding that they have longer working lives than before when 35 was considered past it. We wish we were like France where performers are given funding by government over and above benefits which enables performers to maintain. There is a real fear in the UK, circus will be over-exploited while still under-developed.

I have been asked to mention current issues we have to deal with in the UK. With regard to Physical Theatre, Total Theatre Network has been working hard to address these issues, but with circus there has been no-one to do so. So here's a thumbnail sketch of the issues for circus:

• Specific training needs ie. for maintenance as well as progression
• Lack of strong and united voice
• Funding advice
• No focal point for the sector
• Advancing artistic excellence
• Isolation
• Advocacy
• Health and Safety
• Recruitment of administrators
• Time spent on bureaucracy
• Low wages
• Difficulty in gathering relevant information
• General lack of understanding of what circus is

So why another Circus Association?

There are many many different associations which represent different facets of the circus industry, but I should stress that they all have specific interests. There was no one organisation, which pushed for the industry as a whole, and that, is what people were calling for at the circus conference last year. People were longing for an association which fought for circus and put their significant differences aside.

The next step (after agreeing on a name) was to decide exactly what the Circus Arts Forum was there to do.

The aims of the circus forum are to:

• Raise the profile of circus as a cultural activity
• Promote training and sharing of skills
• Ensure that circus is a viable industry offering secure and worthwhile employment
• Provide a forum between the different facets of the industry

It would' t be fair to take credit for these aims as they existed before. The Circus Forum as opposed to the Circus Arts Forum was a gathering of people interested in circus. It started meeting in March 1996 and met for the last time in February 1997. It was initiated and pushed forward by Circus Space in London who put many resources and much time into it.

We are different in these important respects: Total Theatre Network who set up the Circus Arts Forum is known (and perceived to be) truly independent. It already existed as an independent support and advocate of physically based performance. This is the main reason why we have gained trust (I hope) of the different parts of the circus community, despite being new to their world.

There is an established working party very ably chaired by Verena Cornwall who is also seen to be independent and not allied with any particular group. We work hard to ensure good working practice and most importantly trust and respect despite differences of opinion.

The working party is not an expanding group. It is the same people who meet.

It has by no means been plain sailing and issues which had to be sorted out at the start were:

• The importance of representing all sides of the industry - We all need each other and that was the most important thing to be agreed at our first forum meeting.
• To misquote Chris Barltrop: If commercial circus is denied financial support and/or official approval, then all circus is threatened. With no great circuses to go and see, to aspire to, why bother? A circus culture which is not proving popular with large numbers of the general public in all social groups, or becomes Arty or Exclusive is bound to die as other fashions do.
• Some people have much more perceived power and influence than others.
• The animal issue. Traditional circus people see it as artistic freedom that they can put on their shows, a choice for public and the circus. We agreed a position of neutrality with regard to animals.
• Suspicion between members - is everyone after the same pot of money?
• Touring information.
• Each member represents their own interests, before that of the group.
• How do people join and what do they join? ie. Total Theatre Network or Circus Arts Forum and how do they join the working group?

So what happened

• Circus conference where I stick up hand to write to attendees.
• 10,000 questionnaires sent out.
• Circus Forum produces newsletter, incorporated into Total Theatre Magazine and distributed widely Tender sent out for web site.
• Co-ordinator starts work.
• Co-ordinator sends letter and newsletter to people who returned questionnaires.
• Working group tries to turn into formal group.
• Co-ordinator runs up large telephone bill amassing information on circus and making contact.
• Currently in process of choosing web tender.
• Currently starting on circus lobby document.

Important lessons to be learned:

• Impossible to let everyone know what you are doing, people will feel excluded as a result
• How to stop more and more people coming to working group meetings and having old ground gone over again and again
• Have an independent Chair
• If you get funding, suddenly more and more people want to be involved
• Be as transparent as possible
• Be aware of conflicts of interest, age old disagreements - we have some on the group who won't look at each other, so I am especially grateful that they come to meetings
• Be careful where meetings are held, you don't want to unknowingly let it be seen that you favour a particularl city or company who is hosting meetings
• Be very clear who the forum is for and why
• Be very clear that feedback is always welcome and I include negative feedback
• You aren't running the forum for your own profile but for the good of the community and you will make mistakes, you will piss people off, people will feel excluded, you will discover minority groups who think they should be doing the same thing
• Get certain key opinion former circus people on side to spread the word
• And how do you decide who is on the group once it is not a working group but a formal body?
• Who decides?
• Be very careful about letting anyone think that they or anyone else holds undue influence over the administrator of the group
• Respect of the coordinator by group has to be earned
• How do you deal with problem people joining working group and then being impossible to shift?
• Beware about being personality driven

Achievements:

• Arts Council of England asking for advice when writing Circus policy
• Unifying different voices in circus
• 2 years of funding
• Reduced costs by sharing resources with Total Theatre Network
• Widely circulated newsletter
• Part of Arts Council of England advisory group
• Part time administrator

Our short term plans are as follows:

• Web Site up and running
• Steady and increasing stream of information going onto web site
• Lobby Document produced to spread the word
• Statistics prepared on state of Circus in the UK
• Working with other organisations which offer complementary services
• Practical advice eg. risk assessments, health and safety advice commissioned for publication in newsletter and on web

Want to achieve:

• An Artist led organisation with an artistic and an administrative chair
• Peer exchange training
• Critical debates
• A publication
• Conferences
• Awards at the Edinburgh Festival
• The Voice of the sector
• Still going, 16 years on from the start

Structure:

A Company Limited by Guarantee which means that we can't make a profit and don't suffer personally if we go bankrupt! A board of a maximum of 14 representing different spheres of membership and different regions, plus advisers. Board meets 5 times per year including 1 away day.

So go for it! ...

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This project has been assisted by the Federal Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.