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In my thesis I will debate on pain as a physical and biological phenomenon when training and teaching circus arts. Pain is almost an everyday matter when training circus, the equipment is uncomfortable and the positions that tricks require are painful. Training circus is physically demanding and the risk of getting hurt is always possible. I debate in my thesis how you can know when pain is an indication of a serious injury and when is it a matter of the body not being used to the trick? In training circus the terms “good” and “bad” pain are commonly used. In my thesis I ponder what they mean and are they proper terms?
My key sources of data are my own experiences and observations as an aerial acrobat and aerial acrobatics teacher. In addition I have sought information from
literature, online sources and research articles in the field. My end result is that discomfort is a part of training circus. Discomfort can feel like pain and for safe training it is important to be able to separate discomfort from pain caused by an injury. Separating those two promotes safer training and prevents injuries to both circus professionals and circus hobbyists.