Following the great success of the 1st European Circus History Conference in London in 2025, we are delighted to announce that the next edition of the biennial conference will take place in Denmark at the wonderful Copenhagen Circus Museum from Thursday 15th to Saturday 17th April 2027. Appropriately, that Saturday will coincide with World Circus Day.
The first day will allow participants to get to know one another as they are taken on a tour of important circus locations in the City that will include the world-famous Tivoli Gardens.
The conference will take place during the day on Friday and Saturday at the Circus Museum in Hvidovre, a suburb of Copenhagen, which has a 120 seat conference theatre on the site. See the photos below.
The central theme will be ‘How has circus related to change‘ which can encompass how circus has responded to change, initiated it or ignored it. Changes could be political, social, geographic etc. The focus is on change relating to Europe, though the change(s) can also be inwards or outwards of the continent. The call for papers will be made nearer the time.
The ECHC is enormously grateful to Mikkel Knudsen, the Museum Director, and his team for offering to host the 2nd conference.
The organising committee for this conference comprises:
Charlie Holland (UK), Initiator of the European Circus History Conference. 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 subsequent ones. His latest project is the London Juggling and Flow Arts Festival, to take place in October 2026.
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
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 has BA and BSc degrees, teaches circus history at Codarts Rotterdam, and is co-author of the book ‘Turning the cube: Perspectives on codes through juggling and visual arts’.
Mikkel Knudsen (Denmark), Director of The Circus Museum in Hvidovre (a suburb of Copenhagen). Mikkel has a History MA and has worked at the museum since 2004. He has produced several exhibitions with topics including Circus Culture, the World of Magic, and Animals in the Circus. He has written many articles about circus and is often used as an expert by the media.
Kornélia Deres (Hungary), an associate professor at ELTE Eötvös Loránd University of Budapest, has published widely on theatre, performance, and cultural practices. She was the recipient of the Humboldt Fellowship at the University of Cologne, the Junior Core Fellowship at the Central European University, and the Bolyai Fellowship from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Her current research focuses on nineteenth-century popular performance culture and scientific spectacles in Central and Eastern Europe. She has authored two monographs and co-edited six volumes. She is also a poet and writer, having published four books.
Lina B. Frank (Sweden), a producer, programmer/curator and arts consultant based in Europe with offices in Lund/Malmö, SE and Bristol, UK.
European Circus History Conference 