Danes love circus. Last year, over 150,000 spectators bought tickets to contemporary circus and performance. In comparison, the audience numbers for classical ballet and modern dance combined were just over 80,000 higher, according to Statistics Denmark. It's a stark contrast, then, how much attention these two fields do and don't receive when it comes to education and support.

We urgently need to train new circus talent in Denmark. There is a general lack of production and training facilities throughout the country, especially in the metropolitan area. In addition, the bodies that support and recognise artistic genres do not have the expertise to judge and support the genre. Although there is no lack of demand, it is struggling to survive in Denmark.

 

Cross-stage performing arts

Many decades ago, Canadian Cirque De Soleil took circus arts out of the tent and the ring. The new circus form calls itself contemporary circus or new circus, and today it plays an important role in the performing arts.

"Contemporary circus, understood as a genre that renews the old classical circus tradition in a different way, is a politically and economically overlooked field, and in the performing arts landscape, this type of performance takes up far, far too little space - both when it comes to adult performances and when children and young people are included in the target audience."

Here's how one wrote notifier last year about a performance at Dynamo Workspace in Odense. As one of a handful of circus companies, Dynamo has managed to create permanent jobs, bring international attention to the municipality, attract state-funded performances to a new stage and become a focal point for young and established artists from around the world.

 

Circus is more than artistry

As with other performing arts, artists' expertise can also be utilised off stage. In 2014, Danish artists were employed in Danish schools. 20 municipalities and 60 professional artists combined sports, art and learning for a period of five years for students in 6th - 9th grade. The goal was to experience first-hand that 'anything is possible'. The external evaluation report tells stories of students becoming braver, more confident, getting closer physically and socially and seeing new sides of each other.

In addition, artist-trained clowns also work in the healthcare sector, where they carry out tasks in addition to other healthcare tasks every day.

 

Education and infrastructure missing

The potential and good output is not hard to spot. Not least now that the Royal Danish Theatre. Theatre has recognised the value of the artists in their magnificent productions. Unfortunately, Danish contemporary circus is in worse shape than ever in terms of political awareness and support.

In 2012, the Minister of Culture started well but ended badly for the circus. Funding for a new higher education programme (AMOC) was in place, but due to a personal matter, and then a lack of political will, the pilot programme closed after three years, despite high employment and great evaluation.

The Academy for Untamed Creativity (AFUK) has been cut back and does not have the resources to hire enough specialised circus teachers to maintain the level of teaching required if Denmark is to produce artists of a high enough standard. The Danish Arts Foundation's Project Support Committee for Performing Arts does not have the competences to judge pure circus performances, they say. These are the performances that the committee considers to be artistic. The rest are not considered at all. The prestigious Reumert committee does not give awards specifically to circuses or artists.

 

Give contemporary circus the future it deserves

Unlike Denmark, the art form has political acceptance and support in Sweden. In 2017, the Swedish government issued a commission to map the situation for professional contemporary circus. In 2009, the organisation Manegen was established, which today constitutes an actual infrastructure for contemporary circus in Sweden. Manegen offers innovation laboratories, training facilities, support opportunities, political advocacy and more. In 2012, Manegen received government funding to establish training facilities in six Swedish cities.

In Denmark, the Danish Contemporary Circus has just been founded. The organisation is fighting for a seat at the table in the government councils that distribute funding and to understand the potential of the genre. At Det Kgl. Theatre, 14 of the 16 artists currently working on Ragnarok are AFUK graduates, two of them from AMOC.

As a physically demanding performing arts discipline, Denmark should have its own S.U-authorised high-level education. From there, the circus genre should be able to achieve better conditions - at least by equalising it with dance. Not to take anything away from other unique performing arts, but to add something. For children and healthcare, for innovation in performing arts expression and international collaboration, and as the only performing art form that can give us thrills and break the law of gravity.

"As a physically demanding performing arts discipline, Denmark should have its own high-level S.U-eligible programme."
Sara Indrio, chairperson of Danish Artist Association and board member of Danish Contemporary Circus

 

The opinion piece was published in Culture Monitor on 7 July.