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They begin to induce the flickering of fear and excitement (as circus has always done) when Zanzu begins a methodical tying process for another suspension with jute rope - but this time, around their face. This is where Zanzu (they/them) comes in. I EZ i (see Figure 1) is a circus piece with one performer, a recorded voice, and an improvising audience member. Elena Zanzu's I EZ i fits neatly into the emerging domain of "new circus" - performances that leave behind the brash ringmaster glam of the traditional circus and the Cirque du Soleil I internationale i of "contemporary circus.". [Extracted from the article]

Copyright of Circus: Arts, Life & Sciences is the property of Michigan Publishing and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Circus: Arts, Life & Sciences is the property of Michigan Publishing and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This writing sets out to explore the Social Circus program in Nunavik in the Arctic in Far North Canada which in various forms has now been running for nearly twenty years. The initial program begun by Cirque du Soleil in 2002 had little uptake by the Inuit. There was a lack of community support and very sporadic attendance by the Inuit young people and after five years it was discontinued. The Social Circus program now known as Cirqiniq developed out of this initial program. Its success can be gauged by the fact that every year young Inuit vote in a poll as to whether it should continue or not. The program now has the support to ensure it continues each year. This article asks questions about what it was that changed in order to cause this turnabout? What was it that changed to cause the involvement of young Inuit and Inuit communities? Did the approaches to training change? Did structural changes occur? The authors, two of whom have worked with Cirqiniq, set out to answer these questions. A series of interviews undertaken with Inuit and Qallunaat (non-Inuit) involved in the program, along with research undertaken in response to these interviews, revealed a process of structural and cultural decolonisation of the Social Circus program which the authors point to as the key component in the program's current success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Betting on the most promising new ideas is key to creativity and innovation in organizations, but predicting the success of novel ideas can be difficult. To select the best ideas, creators and managers must excel at creative forecasting, the skill of predicting the outcomes of new ideas. Using both a field study of 339 professionals in the circus arts industry and a lab experiment, I examine the conditions for accurate creative forecasting, focusing on the effect of creators’ and managers’ roles. In the field study, creators and managers forecasted the success of new circus acts with audiences, and the accuracy of these forecasts was assessed using data from 13,248 audience members. Results suggest that creators were more accurate than managers when forecasting about others’ novel ideas, but not their own. This advantage over managers was undermined when creators previously had poor ideas that were successful in the marketplace anyway. Results from the lab experiment show that creators’ advantage over managers in predicting success may be tied to the emphasis on both divergent thinking (idea generation) and convergent thinking (idea evaluation) in the creator role, while the manager role emphasizes only convergent thinking. These studies highlight that creative forecasting is a critical bridge linking creativity and innovation, shed light on the importance of roles in creative forecasting, and advance theory on why creative success is difficult to sustain over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

STUFISH partner MAciej Woroniecki explains some of the parameters that entertainment architects need to consider. They include aspects such as the definition of the brief, the materiality of the proposition, its programmatic appropriateness, its portability and weight and its cost. Above all there must be a clear project narrative that drives the special and spectacular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

S. Leonard Auerbach is Founder and Design Director of San Francisco‐based Auerbach Pollock Friedlander (APF) who provide theatre and theatrical systems design and audio‐video consulting services. He charts a series of creative interactions and collaborations with STUFISH from 2003 onwards that are highly architectural and theatrical, and international in their scope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With four decades of diverse experience illuminating numerous performative events, Patrick Woodroffe, a senior partner of international lighting consultancy Woodroffe Bassett Design, explains the importance of light to performer and scenery. He also gives us an insight into some of his interactions with various performers and then runs us through the sorts of things a typical day entails. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

El objetivo es analizar cómo la compañía de circo contemporáneo Cirque du Soleil aumenta progresivamente la intensidad dramática de las escenas en sus creaciones para poder trasladar su forma de composición a otras creaciones, y asimismo llegar a proponer los criterios utilizados, en un contexto pedagógico que utilice el circo como recurso educativo. La metodología utilizada es la observacional, mediante la aplicación de un formato de campo, aplicado al estudio de los diez espectáculos de la compañía estrenados entre 1986-2005. Este instrumento se realizó aplicando las lentes de la ciência de la acción motriz, la praxiología motriz. Resultados y discusion: Los resultados muestran diversas formas de acentuación de la intensidad dramática, vinculadas a los componentes de la lógica interna del espectáculo circense: a los compañeros y compañeras, aumentando el número de personas implicadas en la realización de acciones motrices; al espacio, variando las figuras, aumentando la dificultad y riesgo de las mismas, elevando la altura en la que se realizan, o disminuyendo la superficie de apoyo; al tiempo, prolongando los tiempos de vuelo, manteniendo el tiempo de ejecución de diversas figuras, o incrementando la velocidad de ejecución; y a los objetos, aumentando el número de objetos implicados en los números. Las conclusiones señalan que el conocimiento exhaustivo de los componentes de la lógica interna del circo permitirá recrear crescendos en la dramaturgia de los números de circo. Como consideraciones finales indicar que estas formas de crescendo se utilizan en la progresión de los números de una compañía profesional, pero son igualmente aplicables a la composición de escenas de circo en un contexto educativo.

There is limited information available to assist evidence-supported detection and referral of mental, social, and physical health issues affecting performance in circus artists. Therefore, this study examines mental, social, and physical health of artists in 2 circus settings (circus school, professional circus). The specific aims were to assess overall health and develop data-informed wellness screening methods in these populations, assisting referral guidelines for performance and health optimization. A comprehensive psychometrically validated battery of standardized measures was administered to 109 professional circus artists employed by Cirque du Soleil and students enrolled in the National Circus School. Compared with students, professionals reported significantly fewer problems with social isolation, fatigue, and factors that interfere with circus performance specific to shows/evaluations; they also reported greater satisfaction in their social roles and overall circus performance. Professionals also reported significantly less severe depression, and greater receipt of emotional and informational support compared with normative samples. Scores of students were similar to those of normative samples, although their scores measuring anxiety and fatigue were higher. There were no significant differences between professionals and students in perceived interferences during training, or circus-related problems with coaches and classmates/coworkers. For all participants, scores on measures of mental, social, and physical health were negatively associated with factors reported to interfere with circus performance. Participant responses to the measures were used to develop guidelines to facilitate detection of factors interfering with performance and to assist informed referrals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For Cirque du Soleil’s touring arena show Corteo, music is a central feature of every performance. In this article, I focus on Corteo’s touring sound technicians, who play an essential role in the show’s musical presentation. I discuss a methodological approach to my ethnographic research, which provides new insights into large-scale intermedia performance environments like Corteo. I theorize a masculine-gendered, stoic mode of emotional labour that is enacted through voice-to-voice remote communication during performance. 0rough participant observation, public intercept interviews, and what I call “working interviews”—interviews with the sound technicians that take place during performances or other operational activities—I engage directly with the technical and emotional labour practices of musical production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is increasing interest in the marketing discipline to adopt an institutional perspective when examining markets. This requires seeing markets as complex systems that evolve through time, rather than as preexisting, stable structures. Using a historical, longitudinal case study, we integrate the "institutional work" framework as a lens to understand the process of market change in the novel, historic case of circus in North America through the 20th century. We explore the decline of the market for traditional American circus, and the emergence, in the 1970s, of the adjacent market for new circus, with a specific focus on the world's preeminent new circus company, Cirque du Soleil. Theoretical contributions of the article include a "market-shaping activities" framework that illustrates market shaping involves considerably more actors than the dyad of producer and consumer. Market-shaping occurs through an interdependent process involving institutionalized practices, beliefs and expectations, and the intentional activities of market actors at any institutional level. Market change is shared, iterative, and recursive, that is cocreated, and undertaken by market actors both formal and informal. Market shapers do not necessarily work in an orchestrated fashion; nevertheless, vibrant networks of complementary actors contribute positively to the construction of shared identities and normative networks. From a managerial perspective, we find implications for policy makers, funders, strategists, and marketers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The Cirque du Soleil serves as a model of innovation in the Canadian context. Since the 1980s, it has grown into a global corporation, sourcing talent and staging productions around the world. In this paper, we argue that the firm's success owes a lot to its unique creation process, and to its ability to maintain a delicate balance between art and commerce. In recent years, however, the Cirque has struggled to maintain this balance, often opting for a formulaic and rigid approach that entails closed, rather than open, spaces of creation. Corporate expansion and the need to deliver shareholder value has led to an increasingly top-down and bureaucratic structure. We examine how corporatization is tied to a standardization and deskilling of labour, examining the ways in which individual creativity is devalued in this new context. We argue that the reorganization has led to a rationalization of the workforce and diminished opportunities for skill development and tacit knowledge exchange. As a consequences of these shifts, an increasing number of workers leave the company to pursue their artistic ambitions elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The purpose of this study was to contribute to newly emerging research within the area of circus arts. The more specific aim was to explore talent identification and recruitment processes in this area. A total of six participants involved in the selection, identification, and recruitment of circus artists undertook semi-structured, in-depth qualitative interviews. The participants were sampled from three different circus arts training and performance organizations. The results provide an overview and contrast of the talent identification and recruitment processes involved in an international performance-based circus, a national training and performance-based circus, and a youth training and performance-based circus. The findings show the complex and changing requirements for the domain of circus from fundamental skills, to developing skills for performance, and then skills for innovation, and echo the call to support transitions between performance levels (Burtt & Lavers, 2017). This research builds a strong foundation for continued exploration to understand the complexity of this area of training and performance. Abbrevations: CDS = Cirque du Soleil FFF = Flying Fruit Fly CircusNICA = National Institute for Circus Arts FTEM = Foundation; Talent; Elite; Mastery [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Cirque du Soleil is one of the most imaginative and unique shows every created. The brainchild of Guy Laliberté, Cirque has gone from an idea on the busking streets of Quebec, Canada to an International phenomenon with more than 30 shows worldwide, viewed by in excess of 180 million spectators and generating in excess of $1Billion in sales annually. The shows range from touring shows such as Toruk, a tribute to Avatar, to KA; an Asian themed martial art offering staged as a permanent show in Las Vegas, United States. Cirque du Soleil has also been a cornerstone example of the classic Blue Ocean Strategy combining two red oceans to create a new blue ocean. In Las Vegas, Cirque du Soleil offers seven permanent shows; possibly generating its own red ocean. The current paper will examine KA from the perspective of blue ocean strategy to determine if KA is in fact is a Blue Ocean itself within the larger Cirque du Soleil Blue Ocean and evaluate the sustainability of KA in Las Vegas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Hermeneus is the property of Revista Hermeneus and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

El presente artículo esboza una teoría tensiva, figural, de la interacción, que se opone y complementa con la teoría narrativa y fi gurativa propuesta por Eric Landowski. Esta última propone una taxonomía de las interacciones dispuesta en el cuadrado semiótico; aquella, mientras tanto, respetando dicha taxonomía, la dispone en intervalo(s) sobre los que se deslizan cursos vectoriales. Estos últimos dan cuenta de cuatro zonas de tensión: desprogramación, reprogramación, desajuste, reajuste. Esa irrupción de la gradualidad permite imaginar una gama de «interacciones sin nombre». La mencionada propuesta teórica se pone a prueba en el análisis de las cómicas peripecias de una parodia de la célebre canción de Jacques Brel, Ne me quitt e pas, puesta en escena por el Cirque du Soleil’s Varekai.

Purpose – Our paper aims to present in short the theoretical foundation of the concepts of business strategy and creativity, and to highlight the relationship between them. Design/methodology/approach – Using the literature review, the study examined the conceptual framework of the notions of strategy, business strategy, and creativity. Also, it analysed the relationship between business strategy and creativity. Findings – The results confirm previous studies related to the beneficial impact of creativity on the business strategy of a company. As creativity has become an important input for a successful business strategy, companies are making significant efforts in order to bring creativity into play. Practical implications/originality/value – Business strategy and creativity are two interconnected concepts not only in theory, but also in practice. Also, creativity represents a fundamental asset of a successful company in turbulent times.