Cirque global: Quebec’s Expanding Circus Boundaries ed. by Louis Patrick Leroux, Charles R. Batson (review)

Circus has become one of Quebec’s most successful cultural exports. Contributing an annual revenue of up to one billion Canadian dollars to the Montreal economy, circus companies such as the Cirque du soleil, Cirque Éloize, Cirque Alfonse, and Les 7 doigts de la main have developed their own distinctive forms of ‘theatrical, mostly animal-free, contemporary circus’ (p. 8). As this volume demonstrates, what is distinctive about Quebec circus is the diversity of circus aesthetics and practice, and the presence in Montreal of the École nationale de cirque, the only state-funded élite training facility in North America, which was founded in 1981. This combination of a vibrant circus culture and an internationally recognized educational institution has helped Montreal become the centre of other circus-related activities, including the annual Montréal complètement cirque festival and the establishment of the Working Group on Circus Research. Until recently, research on circus was sparse and mostly conducted at a distance from the ring. However, the latest research, as this book demonstrates, draws on disciplines across the arts and social sciences to consider Quebec circus as a historical, social, cultural, and economic phenomenon — a product of local conditions but adapting to a global commercial environment. It has also widened its scope to include analysis of practice, performance, and training, in a closer collaboration between researchers and practitioners (a development also evident in current research in theatre studies in Canada and in France). The first of the book’s five parts explores the relationship between Quebec circus and earlier circus traditions, from France, the UK, Germany, the USSR, and the US. The second part covers the role of affect in the production and consumption of circus performance, the status of Guy Laliberté, founder of Cirque du soleil, and the role of circus in urban gentrification. The third part includes chapters focusing on the intimist circus model of Les 7 doigts de la main, the performing body, and the representation of indigeneity in Totem, a collaboration between Robert Lepage and the Cirque du soleil. The fourth part addresses aspects of management practices and entrepreneurship, and studies the para-diplomatic implications of collaboration between circus troupes in China and Quebec. The final part assesses the role of local synergies in the evolution of the Cirque du soleil, the pedagogy of circus arts, and the activities of socially engaged circus artists in support of student revolt during the 2012 ‘Quebec Spring’. A substantial glossary of terminology (in French and English) provides the non-specialist reader with the artistic vocabulary required for an understanding of the techniques and equipment of circus acts discussed and illustrated throughout the volume. The back cover suggests that this book is the definitive study of the phenomenon of Quebec circus. This is overstated. As the editors point out, this volume signals an initial scoping of a field that has the potential to engage practitioners and scholars from a still wider range of disciplines. It is, however, an exciting and intelligently executed start.