The queer potential in big tops
by Tai-Jung Yu
This article was originally commissioned for the Circostrada publication “Touring Programming and funding big tops in Europe” co-written and co-directed by Axel Satgé of Yellow Everything and French producer Déborah Boëno.
Find out more here.
Talking about queerness in circus and big tops, we usually think of their kinship with cabaret or drag performances. In this short text, I explore a different pathway and try to answer how the concept of queer may inspire the circus in big tops.
Whether focusing on what is within the circus tent nowadays or approaching from a historical point of view, circus seems to constantly challenge and be against what the public is used to: the quotidian boundaries of convention and limitation. Both corporeally and aesthetically, the content of circus gives the impression of being “out of this world”. Architecturally, circus tent also provides a hint of space on the margins even away from society. Appropriating David Halperin’s definition of queer, if circus is “at odds with the normal, the legitimate, the dominant”, spatially, culturally and content-wise, it seems like circus in big tops is inherently queer. But is it?
When talking about the opposite of normal in circus, I can’t help but think of the freak show and human menagerie in the history of the touring big tops. Their realisation requires the curiosity of human nature but also resource exploitation with the method of separation. Not just the separation of circus from the society, but also the separation within the circus. The exhibitions of freaks and other “wonders” were placed in the sideshow annexe, away from the main big top. If there is anything queer about it, it would only be the very superficial layer of content and couldn’t be more different from our understanding of the idea nowadays. What about juggling and acrobatics after the traditional circus? Don’t they keep challenging the dominant way we use our bodies, thus making them queer? Here, I agree with the assertion of circus scholar John-Paul Zaccarini: the pursuit of walking with hands or skillfully manipulating objects may be driven by similar ideas of queerness, as looking for something “at odds with the normal”. Nonetheless, it aims for normativity with able bodies, which means the acts of circus in the mainstream are “cosy craft, not edging art”, subsequently, the queerness fades with every successful trick.
Dealing with queerness in the circus field, I contemplate not only how to do circus about queer, or simply combining forms like drag shows, but also, and probably more, about how to do circus in big tops in a queer way. On one hand, doing circus in a queer way implies a reconsideration of the queerness of techniques and bodies, like what Zaccarini points out. This idea reminds me of the “unjugglability” proposed by Phia Ménard, whose practices are deeply interwoven with the philosophy of queer, gender, juggling and materiality. Apart from the economic and practical factors mentioned in the guide, the advantage of doing performances in circus tents is that it is also a “historical site” which bears many stereotypes, cliché even injustices of the circus world. This provides an abundant context to dialogue with when one performs in tents. Meanwhile, the tent is not a void detached from our world. From the people performing and working there to the materials involved in its erection and staging, the various beings we meet while entering the tent are all from the same world we think we leave behind. Due to the conventional mindset of going to big tops, this fact is something the audience usually omits but can be well adopted by the artists who wish to create circus queerly in the tents. Considering the oppression from the past of the circus and the world now, there is more potential than we think when it comes to exposing structures and relations with(in) the society in circus tents. Doing circus in a queer way can also entail how the vulnerable, gazed individuals look back, give consent, or make their situatedness visible.
During the early 20th century, the African American bands touring with circus in the sideshow disseminated blues and jazz music in the US, which led to the growth and transformation of the genres later. It proved that circus in big tops has the potential to bring new ideas around and use its popular, family-friendly characteristics to reach the public. I believe when dealing with topics like queer (and many others), circuses and big tops can be the ideal places for the politics and aesthetics informing each other, and the suitable spaces for potential provocation, celebration, reflection, and imagination towards a different yet possible future.
Tai-Jung Yu
As an independent producer and dramaturge, Tai-Jung Yu is currently the vice president of the IATC Taiwan branch and the columnist of DUMAXI – Taiwanese Circus Media, for which he served as the chief editor. He was the international affairs manager and resident dramaturg of Formosa Circus Art (FOCA) and represented the company in the founding committee of Circus Asia Network (CAN). He curated and co-organized some of the crucial circus forums in Taiwan, including the 2018 Taiwan Contemporary Circus Forum and the 2019 Taiwan International Contemporary Circus Forum at The National Kaohsiung Centre for the Arts - Weiwuying. He has been invited as the facilitator of Artist Residency Project in Weiwuying Circus Platform 2019-2021. Yu graduated from the MA program in Contemporary Theatre, Dance, and Dramaturgy at Utrecht University in 2023.
VASCO MAIO
The illustartion (orginally from the Big Top Guide by Circostrada) is by Vasco Maio. Vasco, also known as João Vasco, is a visual artist based in Lisbon, Portugal.