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In keeping with its theme of “Spectacle: Balancing Education, Theory, and Praxis,” the 2017 ATHE conference featured a plenary titled “A Spectacular Balancing Act.” The plenary featured circus dramaturg Louis Patrick Leroux; Cirque Mechanics cofounder and artistic director Chris Lashua; performance artist Xandra Ibarra (aka “La Chica Boom”); and director of the Stagecraft Institute of Las Vegas, Jane Childs. Moderators included assistant professor of physical theatre CarlosAlexis Cruz; doctoral candidate in performance studies Roy Gomez Cruz; assistant professor Kareem Khubchandani; and chairman of the drama department and live entertainment technology at Lone Star College–Montgomery Chase Waites. Following initial statements (and in the case of La Chica Boom, a performance), the plenary moved to break-out sessions facilitated by the moderators. Below are reflections and summations of the event. [editor summary]

The artistic direction of the First Chicago Contemporary Circus Festival (January 2014) was unabashedly contemporary with a clear nod to Québec's circus practices. Charles Batson (Union College), Zita Nyarady (York University), CarlosAlexis Cruz (UNC-Charlotte), and Roy Gómez-Cruz (Northwestern University) offer their responses to the three Québec productions programmed in the festival, and to Ricochet, an American company which seemed to share some of the codes and artistic sensibility of young Québec companies while charting its own course.

La programmation de la première édition du festival du cirque contemporain de Chicago (janvier 2014) était sans réserves contemporaine et elle faisait une large place aux pratiques circassiennes québécoises. Charles Batson (Union College), Zita Nyarady (York University), CarlosAlexis Cruz (UNC-Charlotte) et Roy Gómez-Cruz (Northwestern University) se sont livrés à l'exercice de la critique des trois spectacles québécois à l'affiche, ainsi que Ricochet, jeune compagnie américaine, qui semble avoir en commun les codes et la sensibilité artistique de ses contemporains québécois, tout en affirmant sa singularité.