The Early Evolution of European Circus and its Disciplines, c1760s – 1860s
The Cinema Museum, London, 28 Feb. – 2 Mar. 2025
Polyorama Panoptique of the Circus and Champs Elysées, circa 1850, courtesy of F. Binetruy.
The European Circus History Conference, hopefully the first of a series held around Europe, will be a friendly and affordable event created by and for circus history enthusiasts and academics. Following an introductory day, the talks will take place over the weekend.
Friday 28 February 2025:
Daytime: Astley’s and Royal Circus walking tour, Early Circus Exhibition at Lambeth Archives (and maybe a visit to Westminster Archives)
Late afternoon/early evening: Tour of the National Centre for Circus Arts, Discussion and Drinks Reception
Saturday 1 and Sunday 2 March 2025:
Daytime: Conference Talks at The Cinema Museum, London, SE11
Saturday Evening: Maybe see Cirque du Soleil at the Royal Albert Hall
The volunteer-organised and not-for-profit conference is supported by the Circus Friends Association of Great Britain, National Centre for Circus Arts, National Fairground and Circus Archive, Lambeth and Westminster Archives, and by its venue, the Cinema Museum. The organising committee is Charlie Holland (ENG), Erik Åberg (SWE), Pauliina Räsänen (FIN), Harm van der Laan (NL), and Raffaele de Ritis (IT), whose biographies are below.
London is an appropriate place for an inaugural conference being the location of the original circus, Astley’s Amphitheatre, and of Dibdin’s and Hughes’ Royal Circus from which the form got its name. The talks and discussion will take place at Lambeth’s atmospheric Cinema Museum which is within walking distance of the sites of both circuses.
The ambition is to have a bi-annual conference, hosted in a different European country to the preceding one, and we welcome proposals for 2027. We hope this first conference will result in a small surplus to assist the subsequent one. It will also help fund conservation treatment of a couple of Astley posters at Lambeth Archives.
Tickets, likely to cost £50 / €60 inclusive of teas/coffees, will go on sale in September.
Web: www.circusconference.org, Email: info@circusconference.org
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We are now inviting proposals of talks relating to The Early Evolution of European Circus and its Disciplines, c1760s – 1860s.
Philip Astley opened his riding school in Waterloo in 1768, shortly afterwards moving to the foot of Westminster Bridge, the site of his Amphitheatre. This year’s conference focuses on developments in circus and its disciplines from around 1760 to the 1860s. Appropriately for a European event, the conference concerns circuses and performers active within any part of Europe, and also those who travelled into and from Europe.
We welcome proposals of twenty-minute or six-minute talks. Shorter talks (optionally in PechaKucha – Wikipedia style) might introduce one performer or a particular innovation, while longer talks will tend to take a broader view. There will be additional times for questions and answers.
Please submit the talk you really want to give. For inspiration, topics could include: competition and collaboration with pleasure gardens, hippodromes and the music hall; Astley’s early competitors; innovation and trends within circus disciplines, apparatus and choreography; the types of music in the circus and how music was used; the role and significance of women in circus, not least Patty Astley; the rise and fall of hippodrama; permanent and temporary buildings; the introduction of the tenting circus; lighting the ring and the act; touring circuits for circuses and for individual performers; humour within the ring; changes in circus promotion.
There will also be panel sessions of about 40 minutes with three or four panel members. If you have a topic and a panel to suggest please let us know.
Depending on adequate ticket sales, it is expected that most speakers will be offered free admission, and that five travel bursaries of up to £150 will be available.
Please send proposals to info@circusconference.org by 31st August 2024 at the latest and we will select speakers the following week. Submissions should be up to 200 words with a CV of up to 100 words . There will be equipment for PowerPoint presentations (which we will require at the latest a week prior to the conference). Please state any other technical requirements you have.
There will also be a small exhibition on site – attendees are invited to propose items to bring to show – and a book and ephemera sales stall.
Total on-site attendance including those speaking will not exceed c100 to keep the conference manageable and convivial. The talks are unlikely to be streamed this year, though recordings for archive use will be made.
The Venue
The conference takes place in Lambeth’s wonderfully atmospheric Cinema Museum, formerly a Victorian workhouse where Charlie Chaplin was briefly resident, in an area where many circus and music hall performers lived. The conference hall is on the first floor, up 20 steps (two flights of ten).
The Cinema Museum, Dugard Way off Renfrew Road, Lambeth, London, SE11 4TH.
A presentation at the Cinema Museum
The 2025 Conference committee:
Charlie Holland (UK), a former professional juggler who was instrumental in the development of The Circus Space, latterly National Centre for Circus Arts, as its Programme Director and Deputy Chief Executive. His books include ‘Strange Feats and Clever Turns’ on speciality acts in the 19th century. He is the Secretary of the British Music Hall Society and initiated and co-organised their first conference in 2023 and is co-organising their second in 2024.
Pauliina Räsänen (Finland), a circus and magic artist and cultural historian (MA) from Finland is a graduate of the renowned National Circus School of Montreal. Her performance background includes touring with Cirque du Soleil’s Alegria as a solo trapeze artist for six years. She is currently pursuing her PhD in Cultural History at the University of Turku, researching the forgotten history of women in circus and magic, and is CEO of ArtTeatro Ltd, a Finland based circus and magic arts production company
Erik Åberg (Sweden), an artist based in Stockholm who makes objects and performances, and has appeared in most European countries, Japan, Canada and the USA. He is.a PhD student in performative and media based practices at Stockholm University of the Arts where his research concerns circus, juggling, sculpture, history, archive and philosophy. An accomplished circus historian, Erik is the world’s foremost expert on the juggler Paul Cinquevalli, the subject of his newly published book ‘Cleverer than God’.
Harm van der Laan (The Netherlands), an artist and co-artistic director of both Tall Tales Company and the Tall Tales Studio, which has grown to become the main space for training and ongoing education of the professional circus community in The Netherlands. Harm teaches circus history at Codarts Rotterdam and is co-author of the book ‘Turning the cube: Perspectives on codes through juggling and visual arts’.
Raffaele de Ritis (Italy), writer and director, active in the USA and Europe, taking a modern theatrical approach to ancient spectacular traditions: circus, magic, cabaret. He wrote and directed for the world’s leading companies in the performing arts industry: Disney, Cirque du Soleil, Dragone, Ringling bros., Big Apple Circus, and Europe’s oldest theatres. His education crossed masters such as Federico Fellini and Dario Fo, art academies, century-old circus dynasties and the underworld of European variety. As a recognized historian in performing arts, he has authored seminal books and papers in seven languages, and teaches and lectures worldwide. Raffaele is custodian of an extensive private collection, and sits in the Performing Arts Council of Italy’s Ministry of Culture.
1st European Circus History Conference 