In the footsteps of itinerant jesters and strolling players of the past, the world of circus emerged, illuminating the glimmer of wanderlust in the hearts of their audiences. As the late 18th century dawned, troupes began touring to even the tiniest hamlets, bridging the gap between imagination and reality. In the 19th century, when the veins of the railway reached across the land, these circuses carried the magic of their performance further still. Majestic enterprises like Astley’s Circus would traverse through Britain, visit the quaint avenues of Paris and other European cities, and persist despite the often grueling conditions of travel.

Richard Sands’ “Splendid and Novel Pavilion”

One such intrepid wanderer was Richard Sands, an American circus proprietor, an acrobat, and a “ceiling walker” of notoriety. In 1842, his company, Sands’ American Circus, made its English debut with a retinue of 35 horses and 25 equestrians, adding a whole new dimension to the circus culture. His infamous “air walking” act, a daring demonstration with rubber suction pads affixed to his feet, kept audiences on the edge of their seats. However, this stunt, as thrilling as it was, ended in tragedy in 1861, reminding everyone that even within the glistening fantasy of the circus, the harsh reality of life could intrude.

Despite this tragedy, Richard Sands gifted England an enduring symbol of the circus – the tent we so fondly associate with these spectacles of wonder. His “splendid and novel Pavilion” was met with an enthusiastic reception and was rapidly imitated by other troupes.

Charlie Keith’s Circus Building on Wheels

The evolution of the circus Big Top buildings is credited to Charlie Keith. He was a celebrated clown and circus owner, who, in 1892, patented the first portable circus building. Tired of circuses with leaky tents and muddy floors, Keith dared to dream of a sturdier alternative. His invention – a flat-packed marvel of wooden planks and a canvas roof – offered the convenience of mobility with the stability of a permanent structure.

The danger of the hastily built, transient circus buildings of the early 19th century was a grim reality. Tragedies such as the gallery collapse in Bristol in 1799 or the fatal accident in Leeds in 1848 served as stark reminders of the risks. Keith’s innovation, his “circus building on wheels,” although not entirely original, was a significant step towards the more stable Big Top structures we associate with the circus today.

What Are Aerialists?

Aerialists are acrobatic performers specializing in the sub-categories of acrobatics performed in the air. They include trapeze artists, tightrope-walkers, high wire acts, and performances on silks, hoops, rings, or other suspended devices.

The History of Aerialism

Much of the history of these acts is a bit murky, with “founders” of the specific arts being credited mostly with bringing popularity to things hinted at in records well before their lifetimes.

Trapeze

The trapeze rocketed to fame thanks to French performer Jules Leotard, who is credited with the invention of the trapeze…though records show the word in use before he was born. At any rate, he brought new life and popularity to trapeze performances in the mid 1800s.

Types of trapezes include:

Sstatic trapeze–ropes and bars and rings that don’t move, around which the performer swings. These sports are still popular in gymnastics and even featured in the Olympic games.

Swinging trapeze–a bar suspended from ropes that allow the performers to swing out in an arc like a pendulum. Swinging Trapeze begins from a still position, and the performer works up his or her own momentum, much like one would do on a playground swing.

Flying trapeze–similar in form to a swinging trapeze, the flying trapeze differs in approach, with the aerialist leaping onto the bar from a great height and using gravity to provide the momentum.

Trapeze acts can be performed solo, in two, or even with more performers working together.

Silks and Ropes

The practice of using fabric or ropes to drop, climb, and twirl. Cirque du Soleil is in large part responsible for catapulting these skills to the fore, but it’s uncertain whether their history dates back further. For the purposes of the Imposters, I assumed that aerialists had been doing these tricks far longer than from the 1990s.

Aerial Hoops

An aerial hoop is a variation of a static trapeze that uses a large ring instead of a bar. Performers flips, twingle, hand, spin, and climb on and through the hoop for their act. The first recorded use of the aerial hoop was in an 1893 circus in New York, by a performer called “Caedo.”

The History of Acrobatics

Acrobatics have been around so many thousands of years that historians are left assuming they have always been around. Some of the most ancient art we have from societies like Greece, Rome, Egypt, and China all show images of people performing acrobatic feats.

Sometimes these performances were part of theater, court life, or competitions…sometimes they were part of cultural events. Ancient Minoan art depicts people performing acrobatics on the backs of bulls as part of the bull festivals, for example. In China, acrobats were part of the royal court from at least the Tang Dynasty, beginning in 203 BC.

In the Middle Ages in Europe, acrobats often performed for courts of both nobles and monarchs.

Types of Acrobatics

“Acrobatics” is a wide, general term that encompasses quite a lot of different things. Many of the ancient forms we see displayed in art include what we today would call contortionism, juggling, gymnastics, and balancing acts. The word itself is derived from Greek, combining “going on tip-toe, climbing up high” and “to walk.”

Typical breakdown of this general term includes:

Acrobalance – floor work in which the acrobats use balance and lifts to create shapes with their bodies.

Acro dance – classical dancing that uses precision acrobatic techniques

Aerial – acrobatics performed in the air, which you can read more about here. Includes trapeze, highwire, rings, hoops, and silks

Contortion – showcasing extreme flexibility

Rope and wire walking – dating from Ancient Greece, involves crossing a thin wire in the air, often performing tricks

Tumbling – what moderns call gymnastics, including somersaults, flips, rolls, and twists

Circus Acrobats

Acrobatic displays, being perennial popular, were a natural edition to the first traveling circuses. Floor exercises were a simple edition, but it didn’t take long for Big Tops to include platforms for high wires, trapezes, hoops, and silks.

Though the first circuses mostly just featured exotic animals, audiences craved action, and so these highly skilled performers brought guests in and wowed them with their feats, colorful costumes, and seemingly impossible contortions. Acrobats have been a key component of circuses from the 19th century onward and are still a much beloved part of performances today.

In the World of the Imposters

Yates and Marigold are both skilled acrobats, having been training since they were children with the Caesars as well as independent groups their late father hired to entertain the neighborhood. Each of the Caesars specializes in a different subgenre of acrobatics.

Franco & Zelda – this married couple have a trapeze act, and Franco was the ringmaster as well

Drina – Franco’s sister is an expert on silks

Alafair – this Caesar cousin is a master at floor acrobatics

Menageries have been popular attractions for eons–as in, dating back to the Romans. Their popularity never really waned…and in fact, it increased with time, as education became more common and science advanced. More and more people wanted to understand animals, but traveling to the wilds was still beyond what most of them could hope for.

Enter the menagerie. In the days of absolute monarchy in Europe, it was usually only the richest of nobles and kings who could afford to have such a thing, and they were part of their grand estates and palaces. But then private enterprise began to kick in. Sailors would bring back exotic creatures from the lands they visited–birds, snakes, monkey, and so on–and animal dealers would buy them, then resell to other entrepreneurs.

In the seventeenth and eighteen centuries in England, there were many permanent menageries throughout England, and they enjoyed spectacular success. Eventually these would be called “zoological parks”…or zoos for short. 😉 But in the nineteenth century, the managerie took on new life: because it took on wheels.

The idea of a traveling managerie would have seemed strange to those nobles and kings of centuries past, but in the world of faster transportation and a growing middle class, these exhibits provided a way for people all over the country of all incomes to experience the awe and ahh of animals the would never have seen with their own eyes otherwise.

Traveling circuses–which began with equestrian trick riding anyway–soon had manageries as feature attractions in their shows.

But you can guess what happened–what ALWAYS happens with people.

They got bored. They’d already seen those snakes and birds and monkeys. They wanted MORE. More excitement, bigger animals, wilder animals. They wanted to see them doing something, not just sitting in a cage. And this is where the circus animal shows really began.

Often called “lion acts” because of the popularity of that King of the Jungle, circuses were soon training their animals to put on performances, either as the sole stars or along with their trainers. Lion tamers and their ferocious cats would act out well choreographed shows; women would ride on elephants who balanced on impossibly small objects; comedians (clowns) would let the beasts lead them into hilarious situations to get a laugh.

Many circuses and traveling manageries actually started–or at least furnished–many zoos still popular today. As animals lost popularity or grew too old to perform, they would be set up as a calmer attraction at these parks. But interestingly, many of the animals in manageries still worked–at a large zoo in London, it was commonplace to see zebras pulling lawnmowers or being hitched to carriages. Can you imagine?!

Circus manageries experienced a decline throughout the twentieth century, though it was a gradual one. And their impact on the world cannot be underrated. Thanks to them, millions of people got to study and understand animals from all over the world; zoological parks were founded that enabled further science and study; and even today, children and adults alike can witness the awe and grandeur of creation in their own towns and cities at these zoos.

And of course, in the world of the Imposters, the Fairfax siblings have a little retired managerie that claims part of their heart.