TIMELESS CIRCUS IN TIMES OF CHANGE

All cultural events, and particularly the performing arts, are grounded not only in popular tradition and historical societal forms, but also in human physiology and psychology as both have evolved over hundreds of millions of years through natural selection. Circus has a remarkable status in this respect because its basis, its building blocks so to speak, is a set of typical actions that can be assumed to have been essential for human survival in the deep time of the species when extreme situations offered constant challenges not yet mediated by cultural artifacts. Such situations are now modeled in the circus ring, mostly in the form of devices (e.g., circus acrobatic apparatuses) and call for the demonstrated capacity of surviving the dangers they imply through appropriate actions. Each one of these actions forms the core of a circus specialty and they are often combined in particular circus acts. These core actions include (1) balancing and progressing on narrow surfaces; (2) grasping hanging supports that prevent deadly falls; (3) clearing obstacles by jumping or climbing; (4) throwing or catching objects in a way that allows a person to reach targets or keep a number of valuable items intact; (5) controlling animals both t