circus arts
Circus skills are a group of disciplines that have been performed as entertainment in circus, carnival, sideshow, busking, variety, vaudeville, or music hall shows. Most circus skills are still being performed today. Many are also practiced by non-performers as a hobby.
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Circus skills
Circus skills
Circus schools and instructors use various systems of categorization to group circus skills by type. Systems that have attempted to formally organize circus skills into pragmatic teaching groupings include the Gurevich system (the basis of the Russian Circus School's curriculum) and the Hovey Burgess system.
• Acrobalance • Acrobatics • Acro dance • Adagio • Aerial hammock • Aerial hoop • Aerial pole • Aerial silk • Aerial straps • Artistic cycling • Balancing • Banquine • Baton twirling • Buffoonery • Bullwhip • Bungee trapeze • Cannonball catching • Carnival barking • Chair balancing • Chinese pole • Cigar box juggling • Cloud swing • Clowning • Club swinging • Contact juggling • Contortion • Corde lisse • Cradle • Cyr wheel • Danish pole • Devil sticks • Diabolo or Chinese yo-yo • Double trapeze • Fire performance • Flag spinning • Flow star • Flying trapeze • Foot juggling • Freestanding ladder • German wheel • Globe of death • Hair hang • Hand to hand • Hand balancing • Hand walking • Hat manipulation • Hoop diving • Hooping • Human cannonball • Human pyramid • Juggling • Jump rope • Knife throwing • Lasso • Lion taming • Mexican cloud swing • Mime • Multiple trapeze • Object manipulation • Perch (equilibristic) • Physical comedy • Plate spinning • Pogo sticking • Poi spinning • Puppetry • Rebound straps • Ringmaster • Risley • Rola bola, balance board • Rolling globe • Roman ladders • Russian bar • Russian swing • Skywalk (aka inverted loop walk) • Slacklining • Slackwire balancing • Spanish web • Springboard • Stage combat • Static trapeze • Stilt walking • Teeterboard • Tightrope walking • Trampolining • Trapeze • Trick riding • Trick roping • Tumbling • Twirling • Unicycle • Ventriloquism • Voltige • Wall of death • Wheel of Death • Whistling
Sideshow attractions
Sideshow attractions
• Bed of nails • Bee bearding • Blade box • Body modification • Body piercing • Chapeaugraphy • Contortion • Electric act • Entomophagy (insect eating) • Escapology • Fire breathing • Fire eating • Girl to Gorilla, a Pepper's Ghost illusion • Glass eating • Glass walking • Gurner • Hook suspension • Human blockhead • Human dartboard • Impalement arts • Iron tongue • Magic acts • Regurgitator • Shallow diving • Snake charmer • Strongman • Sword ladder • Sword swallowing
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article List of circus skills, revision 1373837610 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1."The Classification of Circus Techniques" by Hovey Burgess. The Drama Review: TDR, Vol. 14344425Aleeyah18, No. 1, Popular Entertainments (Mar., 1974), pp. 65-70. doi:10.2307/1144863.
- 2.Flying High Circus, Florida State University. Aerial Acts.
Bibliography printed in the source article · 1
- Burgess, Hovey (1976). Circus Technique. Drama Book Specialists. .
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Broader subject
1- flying trapezeTerminology
Established from a fact already recorded on a verified source.
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 26 September 2026.
Elsewhere in General
22,760 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- CinisiPlace
- CircassiaPlace
- Circle in the Square Theatre SchoolOrganisation
- CirclevillePlace
- CirebonPlace
- Cirey-sur-VezouzePlace
- CiriéPlace
- Cisalpine RepublicPlace
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