Circus
What Is Contemporary Circus? New Circus Explained
Acrobatics, aerial work and juggling used as a language for a whole piece, and how that differs from a ring show.
Read the guideIndependent guide to performing arts festivals
Many art forms, one running order
An interdisciplinary arts festival puts dance, new circus, installation art, performance and spoken word into the same few days. This guide explains each form, how such festivals are programmed, and why an old frame story still helps.
What an interdisciplinary arts festival is
A performing arts festival gathers live work in one place over a short stretch of time. An interdisciplinary arts festival goes a step further: it does not keep dance, theatre, music and visual art in separate programmes, but lets them meet. One evening can include a circus piece, a choreographed walk through an installation and a reading under a tent.
Readers often ask how this differs from a multidisciplinary programme. The usual distinction is that multidisciplinary events present several art forms side by side, while interdisciplinary work lets the forms change each other inside a single piece. Festivals blur the line in practice, and many do both in one weekend.
Performing arts festivals across Europe and other regions follow this pattern in different ways, from city wide events to small three day gatherings. This site is an independent explainer: it does not sell tickets and it does not speak for any festival.
Five forms you meet most often
Thirty tiles, five forms. Scroll and watch the mixed grid sort itself, the way a running order turns many voices into a programme. Each tile carries one trait of its form.
- VoiceA voice and a room
- DanceMovement carries the idea
- VoiceTales passed along
- CircusRisk turned into gesture
- InstallationYou walk inside the work
- InstallationLight, sound and objects
- VoiceFrame stories
- CircusThe apparatus is a partner
- PerformanceA live action is the work
- VoicePoetry out loud
- CircusAcrobatics with a through line
- PerformanceThe artist is the material
- DanceFloor, breath and weight
- InstallationBuilt for one place
- DanceSolos, duets and crowds
- VoiceListening is a skill
- InstallationTime is part of it
- InstallationVisitors complete it
- PerformanceSometimes only once
- CircusBodies as counterweights
- PerformanceThe audience may join in
- PerformanceDuration can be the point
- CircusSkill as a language
- VoiceOne story leads to the next
- InstallationOften open for hours
- CircusAn ensemble that catches
- DanceMusic is optional
- DanceThe space is the set
- PerformanceFew rules, real risk
- DanceRehearsed, then free
Five forms, one card each
- Read the guide
Dance
Bodies, weight and time. Contemporary dance mixes techniques and asks open questions.
- Movement carries the idea
- Floor, breath and weight
- Solos, duets and crowds
- Read the guide
Circus
Acrobatics, aerial work and juggling serving one idea from start to finish.
- Risk turned into gesture
- The apparatus is a partner
- Acrobatics with a through line
- Read the guide
Installation
Environments you enter, where space, light and sound are the material.
- You walk inside the work
- Light, sound and objects
- Built for one place
- Read the guide
Performance
Live action rooted in visual art, often close to theatre and dance.
- A live action is the work
- The artist is the material
- Sometimes only once
- Read the guide
Voice
Spoken word, poetry and tale telling, from Boccaccio's frame to the festival stage.
- A voice and a room
- Tales passed along
- Frame stories
How the programme is built
Choose the work
Programmers invite pieces they have seen, open a call for proposals, or commission something new. Curators add an idea that links the choices.
Shape the days
Rhythm matters: loud then quiet, long then short, familiar then strange. Installations that stay open all day give visitors a reason to return.
Fit the venues
Rigging, sound, seating, access and budget decide what can be shown where. Good programmes plan around these facts early.
- Ten tellers
- Ten days
- One hundred tales
All guides
Dance
Contemporary Dance vs Modern Dance: Key Differences
Modern dance as a historical movement, contemporary dance as a broad living practice, and where lyrical fits.
Read the guide
Installation
What Is Installation Art? Meaning, Features and Examples
Work you walk into: five recurring features, common types and tips for visiting.
Read the guide
Programming
Festival Programming: How Performing Arts Festivals Are Built
Curating versus programming, invitation, open call and commission, pacing and practical limits.
Read the guide
Performance
Performance Art vs Theatre: What Is the Difference?
Performing arts as a category, performance art as a practice, and signs that help tell them apart.
Read the guide
Storytelling
The Decameron Frame Story: How Boccaccio Built It
Ten tellers, ten days, one hundred tales: how a frame narrative holds a programme together.
Read the guideStories as a frame
Ten tellers, ten days, one hundred tales
In the fourteenth century Giovanni Boccaccio wrote the Decameron: ten young people leave plague stricken Florence for a country villa and pass the time telling stories. The tales are different, but the situation holds them together.
That is also what a festival does. A shared place, a limited time, many voices and an audience that moves between pieces. Performers still borrow the device when they build a programme as a chain of short chapters.