Résumé :
The thesis could be described as a performative, reflexive review of my circus practice. Followingapproaches to writing that situate text as part of a practice, such as Jane Rendell's Site Writing, thatlooks at art criticism as a form of architecture, I approach writing as a form of circus. I think this holdstrue whether we adopt the position of circus as the place where events unfold (as in the circus tent) orthat it is the events themselves. I would note that this is not a unique proposition, and follows theprinciples of my classmates & the direction of my course leader. Crucial to understanding this thesis is adecision to start from an approach to circus from a point of view that considers circus as theperformance of the relationship between body, object & environment (following Sebastian Kann 2018).In the same way that my movement practice explores and performs this relationship, so does this text. Istarted out writing this thesis as a performance of the relationship between bodies, objects andenvironments. This works towards an expanded view of what circus could be, operating in a similar veinto notions of expanded choreography. I am hesitant to separate the practices of choreography fromcircus (as is sometimes the case with choreography and dance) - so as to avoid producing a Cartesian riftbetween body (dance) and choreography (mind) and a division between art (choreography) and craft(dance) - as discussed by Bojana Cvejic in the introduction to Choreographing Problems. It could beargued that in this instance, there is a body of text, an object of discussion and an environment ofacademia - though, as you will discover, I find the boundaries of body, object & environment areslippery and shift register (in line with my movement practice).

Collection : Bibliothèque de l'École nationale de cirque