Documents 

This qualitative study explores perspectives of curriculum through the lens of graduates from a collegial level circus arts program in Canada. Data were collected through participant interviewswith students who had graduated within the past ten years. The overarching research question that guided this study was: How do graduates of a post-secondary circus school program perceive the design, content and delivery of the curriculum? Analysis of the data was conducted through the use of the constant comparison approach. It was through this process that multiple themes emerged from the data, which identified the characteristics of undertaking a career in circus arts. These themes included Pushing Borders, Living in a State of Disequilibrium and Constructing Families. Together, these three themes resulted in the fourth and overarching theme, Embracing Circus Life. The findings from this study suggest that applying constructivist teaching practices, fostering a community of learners, supporting the emotional development of students, having strong relationships with coaches and ensuring that the students perceive the courses as useful are essential in optimizing the students’ perception of the program. This study is unique as it is one of the only studies that explore circus and academics. Whereas much of the teaching of circus arts lies in the historical trend of passing down knowledge, this study explores the present day context of circus whereby students can choose to pursue a degree in circus arts. [author summary]

This diploma thesis aims to contribute to the broad discourses of transnationalism, migration and nomadism. It looks at contemporary circus artists* within the European contemporary circus field, the daily mobility realities they experience and the challenges they face. Aiming to draw conclusions about the interconnectedness of mobility and different forms of belonging, the thesis therefore focuses on individual conceptualizations of “space,” “home” and “identity”.
In a first step, the thesis introduces current debates around transnationalism, nomadism and artistic mobility, positioning their relevancy for circus mobility. This thesis draws on post-colonial and queer-feminist concepts of spatiality, home and identity in order to approach circus artists’* mobile realities. In a second step, the thesis gives an introduction to the European contemporary circus field and its infrastructure, before analysing six narrative interviews with circus artists* and deriving different mobility archetypes to better capture the phenomenon of circus mobility.
The thesis assumes a tension between the co-existing sedentary and mobile realities that circus mobiles* encounter and suggests that a conception of home as feeling of belonging, rather than home as place can help the artist* to find stability in flexibility. The thesis furthermore points out mobile artists’* difficulties to form solid relationships and puts a focus on the artist’s* body and the performance as such, as a stable point of reference for identity formation processes.
The findings allow for new perspectives on belonging in the context of spatial instability and contribute to a better understanding of the emotional costs of migration processes in general and artistic mobility in particular. [author summary]

The language of circus can be interpreted through two perspectives: the Traditional American Circus and the New American Circus. There is considerable anthropological importance and research within the study of spectacle and circus. However, there is a limited amount of academic literature pertaining to the linguistics and semiotics of circus. Through participant observation and interviewing, of both circus and non-circus individuals, data will be acquired and analyzed. Further research will provide background information of both types of circuses. Results indicate that an individual's preference can be determined based on the linguistic and semiotic terms used when describing the circus. [editor summary]