Canada

III: Canadian Culture

History of Canadian Circus

Introduction:
Cirque du Soleil and the National Circus School were founded in Québec in the 1970s and 80s. Since then circus in Québec and Canada has developed a distinct style of its own—theatrical, thematic, artistic, and acrobatic. Canada is home to many circus schools and troupes; Montréal 's St Michel neighborhood is the world's largest circus arts city, which is a focal point for the training of circus artists and the performance of circus arts.

Resources:
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Canadian Circus
Cirque Eloize, founded in Montréal, performed at the closing ceremonies of the Olympic Winter Games in Torino, Italy in 2006.

The history of Cirque du Soleil, founded in 1982 in Québec.

Ecole du Cirque de Québec

Cirkids is Vancouver 's circus arts school for children.

The National Circus School of Canada

The Toronto School of Circus Arts

Atlantic Cirque from Nova Scotia

History of the Circus
The National Circus School of Canada's history of circus arts page.

The UK's National Museum for the Performing Arts guided tour on the history of the Circus is at the People Play UK Web site.

The People Play UK 's collection of 164 circus related images.

A history of the circus in China from the Imperial Circus.

A study guide for students to use in conjunction with a performance of Moscow Circus at UC Berkley. Contains information and activities on the circus in general.

The Circus in America is a very thorough Web site with great pictures.

The history of structures in circuses in America.

Circus around the World
The Great Moscow State Circus

Imperial Circus in China

Origin and History of Circus in India

Circus Krone from Germany  

An A to Z glossary of circus terms from Ringling Bros.

A circus-themed activity and coloring book for young kids.

Circus Escape is an online flash-animated story for young learners on the British Council's site for young learners LearnEnglish Kids.

Science Circus teaches kids about physics through the circus.

Circus in Visual Arts
Georges Seurat's “Circus Sideshow”

Henri Toulouse-Lautrec created a series of lithographs about the circus.

A small collection of paintings of the circus, includes Seurat, Pechstein, Shahn, Chagall, Brown, Kuhn, Picasso, and Moillet.

Alexander Calder's ambitious project called Cirque Calder was a miniature representation of a circus that he operated in a film called Mobile.

A thorough description of Cirque Calder at MOMA in San Francisco.

Princeton University Library's image gallery of more than 300 circus posters.

Polish Circus Posters

Circus Posters from the Library of Congress Collection