Circus for Social Change: Performance as Power
Social Circus isn’t just about spectacle — it’s about transformation. In a new volume titled Circus for Social Change: Social Circus in Context, three Circus Studies scholars, Katie Lavers, Jon Burtt, and Emmanuel Bochud, explore how circus adapts and responds to its immediate social, political, and cultural environments.
Extensively illustrated and annotated, the book provides a fresh lens for understanding Social Circus as a tool for healing, community building, and activism. It takes readers on a global journey through diverse projects like Cirqiniq in Northern Canada, Zip Zap Circus in Cape Town, Circus Harmony in St. Louis, Women’s Circus in Melbourne, and the MMCC in Afghanistan. Each case study reveals how local context shapes the practice, whether through decolonising frameworks, feminist approaches, trauma-informed pedagogy, or youth empowerment.
From Brazil to Senegal, Japan to Finland, Circus for Social Change invites readers to reimagine the circus not just as performance, but as a dynamic cultural force.
Dr. Jon Burtt, Performer, Director and Senior Lecturer in Creative Arts at Macquarie University, joined us to explore how Social Circus is redefining performance as a force for community connection, empowerment, and social change around the world. As co-author Dr Jon Burtt explains, Social Circus is about creating spaces where people, often those pushed to the margins, can reclaim their joy, strength, and voice.
The book is a valuable resource for general readers, practitioners, and scholars in creative arts, education, and social justice. Social Circus, it turns out, may be one of the most powerful stages for change.
Read Circus and Social Change: Social Circus in Context (2025, Routledge).
