A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicyclists as well as other object manipulation and stunt-oriented artists. The term circus also describes the field of performance, training and community which has followed various formats through its 250-year modern history. Although not the inventor of the medium, Newcastle-under-Lyme born Philip Astley is credited as the father of the modern circus.
Butoh is a form of Japanese dance theatre that encompasses a diverse range of activities, techniques and motivations for dance, performance, or movement. Following World War II, butoh arose in 1959 through collaborations between its two key founders, Tatsumi Hijikata and Kazuo Ohno. The art form is known to "resist fixity" and is difficult to define; notably, founder Hijikata Tatsumi viewed the formalisation of butoh with "distress". Common features of the art form include playful and grotesque imagery, taboo topics, and extreme or absurd environments. It is traditionally performed in white body makeup with slow hyper-controlled motion. However, with time butoh groups are increasingly being formed around the world, with their various aesthetic ideals and intentions.
Circus clowns are a sub-genre of clowns. They typically perform at circuses and are meant to amuse, entertain and make guests laugh.
A ringmaster or ringmistress, or sometimes a ringleader, is a significant performer in many circuses. Most often seen in traditional circuses, the ringmaster is a master of ceremonies that introduces the circus acts to the audience. In smaller circuses, the ringmaster is often the owner and artistic director of the circus.
Storm Large is an American singer, songwriter, actress and author. She attracted national attention as a contestant on the CBS reality television show Rock Star: Supernova. A resident of Portland, Oregon, Large performs nationally with her own band, and tours internationally with the Portland-based band Pink Martini.
Ballet Fantastique is an Emmy®-nominated American ballet theater company based in Eugene, Oregon in the Pacific Northwest, USA. Ballet Fantastique creates and performs all-original dance theater repertoire and immersive audience experiences. Ballet Fantastique became a resident company at Eugene's Hult Center for the Performing Arts in 2014 and tours across the US and internationally.
Queen of Knives is an opera in two acts by the American composer Eric Stern. The English libretto was written by the composer. The opera premiered in Portland, Oregon, on May 7, 2010, at the Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center. Noah Mickens directed the premiere and the opera was produced by Vagabond Opera and Wanderlust Circus.
Rod Harrel is an actor-writer-director in theatre, video production and film productions. He currently lives in Los Angeles.
Tsunami on the Square is an annual performing-arts and culture festival in Prescott, Arizona that showcases exotic and unique performance art forms not typically seen in smaller towns. Historically, it took place on the third weekend in June on Prescott's historic Courthouse Square. In 2015, Tsunami switched to the fourth weekend of October due to the county's concerns about grass maintenance in June. The festival features a mix of local, national and internationally known professional performers.
William Batty (1801–1868) was an equestrian performer, circus proprietor, and longtime operator of Astley's Amphitheatre in London. Batty was one of the most successful circus proprietors in Victorian England and helped launch the careers of a number of leading Victorian circus personalities, such as Pablo Fanque, the versatile performer and later circus proprietor, and W.F. Wallett, one of the most celebrated clowns of the era. Also, while in operation for only two years, Batty's most lasting legacy is probably Batty's Grand National Hippodrome, also known as Batty's Hippodrome, an open-air amphitheatre he erected in 1851 in Kensington Gardens, London, to attract audiences from the Crystal Palace Exhibition nearby.
Wanderlust Circus is a theatrical circus troupe based in Portland, Oregon, founded in 2006 by creative partners Noah Mickens and Nick "The Creature" Harbar. Since 2006, Wanderlust Circus has grown from a small band of creatives to a full-fledged circus troupe, and non-profit organization. The organization presently comprises a team of acrobats, a 10-piece swing band, a trick-roping cowboy clown; and several aerialists, contortionists, hand balancers, jugglers, and dancers. Their most popular recurring shows have been The White Album Christmas, A Circus Carol, and the dance party series MegaBounce.
David Hattner is an American professional clarinetist and conductor currently serving as music director of the Portland Youth Philharmonic. Raised in Toledo, Ohio, Hattner attended the Interlochen Arts Camp and Arts Academy, experiences which inspired him to become a professional musician and conductor. He graduated from the Arts Academy in 1986 and enrolled in Northwestern University where he studied clarinet performance under Robert Marcellus. In 1988 he placed second in the International Clarinet Association's Young Artist Competition and was selected to join the American-Soviet Youth Orchestra. He earned a music degree with honors in 1990.
Eric Stern is an American vocalist, accordionist, composer, arranger, and pianist based in Portland, Oregon, best known as the founder and artistic director of the band Vagabond Opera. He also performs as a soloist, as well as with the Eric Stern Trio. Stern, with Vagabond Opera, has appeared on NPR and performed at the Kennedy Center, the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, Joe's Pub in New York City.
Amanda Richards is an American filmmaker, producer, director, writer, actress, and singer-songwriter from Portland, Oregon. Richards is best known as the creator of the film and theatrical production of Whiskey Dixie & The Big Wet Country, a raunchy outlaw-country musical.
CC Slaughters is a gay bar and nightclub located in Portland, Oregon, and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. The Portland bar is located in the Old Town Chinatown neighborhood, and the Puerto Vallarta bar is located in Zona Romántica.
Ephraim Thompson was a well-known American elephant trainer.
Soriah is an American overtone singer, performance artist, multi-instrumentalist, and shamanic ritualist headquartered in Portland, Oregon and the Tuvan Republic. His music is a synthesis of traditional forms such as Tuvan throat singing, Shamanic music, Raga, and pre-Columbian Mexica music and language; with avant garde musical styles like Industrial, Ambient, Noise, and Goth. Likewise, his live performance is a fusion of costume and ritual from Tuva, Mexico, North American Native cultures, and Western Ceremonial Magic traditions; as well as chaos magic, butoh, and modern primitive movements of the 20th century. His lyrics, when there are any, are often written in the Nahuatl or traditional Tuvan languages. He won the title of "Best Foreigner" at the 2008 Ustuu-Khuree Festival in Chadanaa Tuva, and in that same year placed as "Third Laureate" at The International Throat Singing Symposium, which remains the highest award given to a non-Tuvan in the history of the Symposium. He also won 2nd Place in the Tuvan Nation Kargyraa Competition in 2014, was given a special award as "Great innovator of the art of Tuvan Throat Singing" in 2016, and won Best Kargyraa Performance at the Khoomei in the Center of Asia Festival 2019. As a solo artist, and with various collaborators and musical ensembles, Soriah has toured throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and Mexico. He is considered the highest-ranked non-native practitioner of Tuvan throat singing.
John Hayes Mabley, better known by his stage name Doktor Haze, was a British circus owner and performer, singer-songwriter, director, and author. He was the owner, ringmaster and director of The Circus of Horrors, in which he co-founded with Gerry Cottle in 1995, which has become Britain's longest-running alternative circus.
David Williamson is an American professional sleight-of-hand artist, magician, actor, and writer.
Wirth's Circus, also known as Wirth Brothers' Circus, was Australia's largest and most prestigious circus company for eight decades. Billed as Australia's own 'Greatest show on Earth', the travelling circus held an international reputation.
