Arts & Media Archaeology

In-between Imagination and Politics: Writing the History of Circus

14 October 2024 - Franziska Trapp & Gwendolien Sabbe

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Location: S.S209 ARIA attic, Lange Sint-Annastraat 7, 2000 Antwerp

​Time: 15h-17h, unless communicated otherwise

​Target audience: junior academic and artistic researchers

In this seminar, circus historian Gwendolien Sabbe will share the current situation of her research on Belgian circus artists who journeyed to America in 1900-1940 to work for the circus, vaudeville theatres and/or the State Fairs. Based on the story of different artists she will talk about why America was so attractive for circus artists, how they managed to land a contract, how their life on the road looked like, and whether crossing the ocean was a step up for everyone or not.

Franziska Trapp, dramaturge and post-doc researcher at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, will draw the line to contemporary circus. How do representations of circus of the 19th century influence the imaginary of circus in the 21st century? In what way does contemporary circus position itself clearly in opposition to nostalgic circus phantasies? In what way is it entangled to romanticized visions? Those questions will be discussed on the basis of selected case studies. 

Preparatory reading: [TBC]
  1. Leonhardt, Nic. "Transatlantic Mediators of Theatre" (The Greatest Exporter of European Talent - H.B. Marinelli (1864-1924)), in Theatre Across Oceans. Mediators of Transatlantic Exchange, 1890-1925, pp. 227-251.
  2. Davis, Janet. "," Bandwagon Magazine, vol. 45, no. 3 (May-June 2001), pp. 4-8.
  3. Kline, Tiny. "," Bandwagon Magazine, vol. 45, no. 3 (May-June 2001), pp. 9-18.

About Franziska Trapp 
Franziska Trapp is a postdoctoral researcher at the University Libre de Bruxelles. She is the founder of the research project Circus | Studies and organizer of international conferences including (2015), (2017), Semaine du Cirque (2020), (2022) and New Circus - New Architectures? (2024). She is the initiator of the (YOUR | Circus), co-initiator of the (CARP), and co-editor of the academic journal . Trapp has worked for various circus productions such as the (FR) and (DE) and collaborated as a dramaturge with (NL),  (BE), Julia Berger (DE) and Cie Equinoctis (FR), among others. She was awarded third place as Germany’s Best Junior Research Talent of 2019 (Deutscher Hochschulverband) and received the DGS Young Researcher Award 2020 for her PhD entitled "Lektüren des Zeitgenössischen Zirkus" (De Gruyter 2020, Routledge 2024).

About Gwendolien Sabbe

Gwendolien Sabbe is a circus historian and independent researcher. She studied history at the University of Leuven and holds a digital storytelling postgraduate degree from KASK Gent. Her research focuses on Belgian circus artists who journeyed to America between 1900-1940 to work for the circus, vaudeville theatre, and/or the State Fairs.

She shares their stories through , and her online platform Circus Nomads (, and ).

She combines her research with a job as circus and comedy programmer at Cultural Centre De Spil in Roeselare. By integrating circus history in the program, she gives circus festival a unique identity amongst the other outdoor arts festivals. She is also a member of the editorial board of and the board of , a creation workspace for circus based in Ghent.