About the new circus

The New Circus first appeared in the Czech Republic before 1989 in the work of Ctibor Turba. We can speak of its gradual development from the beginning of the 1990s, when inspiration gradually came to us, especially from the French New Circus, which was a distinctive theatrical style in France in the 1970s. Independent groups emerged, building on the aesthetics of traditional circuses and street travelling theatre, and developing techniques of juggling, aerial acrobatics (or aerial acrobatics on stilts), ground acrobatics and the art of stilt walking. It was the stilt walkers who became the most prominent figures of the new circus in the 1990s. As a distinctive and increasingly popular genre in the 21st century, the new circus is characterised by the combination of artistic elements such as juggling and acrobatics with a theatrical story.