| At the sunset of its existence, the circus was predominantly a horse-driven one; all the pioneers of this art: Astley, Franconi, Renz, Ginnet, Ciniselli, Ricketts were equestrians (circus riders).
However, as we observed, the advancement of the industrial era in the second half of the 19th century gradually led to the decline of equestrian art. Earlier, people always dealt with horses; horse served as a symbol of noble birth (a tradition that dates back to knighthood) and courage: " the noblest conquest of man ..." . The art of riding skills to manage a horse, bend the horse accoring to our will, the union of man and horse, the combination of their bodies, merging together during a jump, then suddenly detaching from each other - earlier, all this engrossed the attention of spectators, constantly dealing with horses and only due to lack of talent or time, could not master the riding skills such as Philip Astley and Laurent Franconi.
But as time passed, vehicles began playing an increasingly important role in human life; public transport and electricity restricted the horses to the countryside with its unhurried pace of life and the lovers of the equestrian art decreased.
The advantage of the circus was the diversity of its genres, clowns entertained the public, trainers satisfied the public's demand for the exotic, acrobats made the public tremble and the entire spectacle, as a whole, impressed the imagination: the circus is a living art; and will continue to amaze.
So, with the development of circus genres, which were especially given low priority, they occupied first place by pushing out the noble form of art, that prevailed before - horse riding.
But in the new century, the circus had serious contenders. Firstly, the music hall with its much more sophisticated design: projectors, decorations, costumes, music and sophisticated technical equipment. All these innovations were born in the circus arena; the music hall adopted them from the circus, where work is reigned, i.e ordinariness and more attention to empathy was required from the audience and carried into air dreamland.
The second contender was movies: in the beginning, films were silent, but the films certainly had music and were accompanied, and by no means by only pianists, by an orchestra of seventy musicians playing at times during the demonstration of movies in the hall and the orchestra reproduced the noise of train or rumbling earthquake: owing to this background, the image acquired volume and ultimately, life was much more impressive than reality. The emergence of sound in cinema made this new art even a more powerful competitor of the circus.
Finally, the most dangerous opponent - television, giving the opportunity to attend a performance without even leaving home.
But, it is possible to state with confidence: none of these new forms could crush the circus and even fashion has so far failed to prevent the public from this favorite art for a long time.
The circus had to adapt to new conditions.
The first manifestation of this process was to increase the number of mobile circuses. Genuine lovers of the circus have reduced, therefore, the permanent troupes, performing in stationary circuses, started to disintegrate, which allowed them to update the program more often. Still, there existed one more way: by moving from place to place, the troupe did not change the program but the audience.
Initially, European mobile circuses were temporary wooden structures, which were installed at fairs. The troupe carried only the requisites and part of the decorations and the structure was to be erected freshly every time. Then, canvas big tops appeared, which were put on a wooden (subsequently, metallic) framework with plank walls. The entire setup was light and was practically carried from city to city. Runcie & Palissy in France, Mikkeni in Holland and Sarrasani in Germany were the last ones, who remained faithful to these prefabricated demountable structures.
American innovations (coping supports, the use of several central masts, travel by rail) had a decisive influence on the development of mobile circuses. In the beginning of the century, the circus tour of Barnum and Bailey opened up new working methods to Europeans, which they immediately adopted and later on altered the methods to adapt to their own needs. Since the distances were relatively small in Europe, it was more convenient to travel by vehicle rather than by train.
Even the interior decoration has undergone significant changes. First of all, the audience had the opportunity to see the performance "in a new light", gas lights replaced the candles and electric lighting appeared. Of course, everyone quickly started using electric stations and even the circus tents started using them. Cooper & Bailey were the first ones to install an electric generator in their circus tent in 1870; the directors of other circuses soon followed in the steps of Cooper & Bailey and installed them in the circuses, whose blossoming music halls demanded much care in relation to the illumination of the performances. The circus does not need particularly sophisticated lighting effects but some performances were lost, not being highlighted by a beam of spotlights. However, these technological advances should not be abused since they often do more harm to the circus than good. |
This Friday we continue our freaking experiment with provided source images.
