The Realities of the Circus Business – Lasting and Staying Sane

So you want to be a professional!  I am here to dance on your little dreams until they are only sad deflated memories of their former selves.  Not really. However, I have seen people quit their jobs and go all in, only to be startled that their lives didn’t suddenly become all filmy, bathed completely in lavender light. I think it is helpful to know what you are getting into so you can keep enjoying what you love so much already.

It is hard to make an income that would allow you to live in an apartment without ten other people and not eat a bagel-only diet

 The industry is very up and down

Gig Average

 Decide what you really love about performing

Finally, Get a damn hobby!

  Believe it or not, getting paid to do what you love does have a downside. The activity that once made you dance around the park in

Even Sumo wrestling can get old.

sparkles, will now sometimes feel like doing dishes. This doesn’t mean circus will suddenly turn into a complete drag, but it won’t always give you the innocent high it once did.   If you are making your passion your career, then it is important to now find something else to do just for fun. So take up something that doesn’t matter so much, that you can learn without pressure and enjoy just for enjoyment’s sake….Until, of course,  it takes over your life.

Plagiarism and the Circus

I noticed a kid next to me in Kindergarten copying the drawing I was making. The solution was simple then. I just took his crayons.  I told him if he cried or told the teacher, I would tell her he was a big copycat. Then I think he hit me in the head with his sandwich.

But, have you ever watched a performance or a video and thought, “Hey, that looks awfully familiar!” It’s annoying at best and makes you want to chew through someone’s trapeze rope at worst.

Nobody likes a copycat, but how do I know when to blow my top?

The problem is that it can either be unconscious or conscious. Unconscious copying is probably the least insidious and comes purely out of ignorance. For example, I was shown a certain transition out of a move by a colleague for a piece that we were doing together. I thought it was a smoother way to get out of the move than the way I had known, so I started to use it in general. I thought she had just been showing me something that was common knowledge, and obviously I don’t know every single new trick that is part of this rapidly expanding art form. It turns out she felt like I had stolen what was hers even though she hadn’t told me it was hers. I felt badly about it.  It was a misunderstanding that we easily worked out, but shit happens. People new to the business, are the ones that most often don’t know when something is proprietary and when it isn’t.

Conscious copying is probably what gets most people the most righteously outraged. Some in our company have experienced egregious examples. We showed one new piece of work to the public only to have absolutely every part of it copied to the letter by someone else two weeks after we showed it. To her credit, she worked fast. However, it didn’t go anywhere. Another colleague of ours actually noticed someone coming to her rehearsals and videotaping without asking. And it wasn’t just a nice stalker.

When to let that crap go..

To some degree you can’t avoid the risk of being copied. If you are a professional, you will perform publicly.  And you don’t want to be paranoid or start falsely accusing. Sometimes people do just come up with the same thing at the same time. The more people are trying to expand their vocabulary on silks (for example), the more likely it is that someone will come up with the same sequence you did. You can’t assume that you are the only one to ever have thought of a certain move. If you feel like you have evidence to prove plagiarism, maybe confront them or at least hint to them that you noticed, if not, let it go.

The same idea goes with a type of apparatus. As annoying as it is to work on a square and have someone else suddenly have ordered the same thing, if they are doing something different than you are on it, don’t worry about it. There are thousands of people using the same apparatus (lyra, trapeze etc) and those pieces all look different. The circus world is probably big enough for two people to perform in giant dream catchers.

What is most definitely not okay is copying a sequence of choreography or the whole concept of a piece or show.  If you get caught, people can start to see you as untrustworthy and in this business, reputation gets around quickly. As a modern dancer, I once witnessed a show in which a choreographer took an entire section Pina Bausch’s “Cafe Mueller.” It was shocking not only ethically, but also in the fact that she thought an entire educated dance crowd would seriously not know one of the most evocative bits of choreography in dance history. But because she wasn’t Pina, it didn’t make a difference in the long run.

 So how do I protect myself from these unoriginal numbskulls?

By Karin Soderquist

If you are showing something to someone else and you don’t want them to share it, tell them.  Most people will respect a clear directive.  If a trick feels precious to you, don’t teach it in a class or share it on YouTube.   It’s like leaving furniture out on the streets of NYC. People are just going to assume it’s out there for the taking.

    But then how do I get my work out there on the interwebs for agents and producers to find without risking it being stolen? Don’t show your transitions, just the big tricks, and definitely don’t show your piece from start to finish. Nobody got time for that, anyway.

Is it ever okay to copy? How can I get away with it?

Best way to know is to ask the creator if you can use an idea or move. If you are pretty sure they’ll say no, then DON’T DO IT.  I’ll be honest here. I look on YouTube for inspiration as I think do many people. However, usually whatever I find, I end up morphing so much that the original choreographer probably couldn’t tell it was theirs to begin with. I don’t think there is anything wrong with looking to other artists for inspiration. You will know if you are crossing bounds though if you imagine that person in your audience and you know they would recognize what they saw and be really upset. It takes a ton of time and hard work to come up with something truly original. It’s worth doing because the feeling of success will feel deserved and not just superficial.

If you do find your stuff hijacked, take heart.

At the end of the day, you have more creativity in you than the copycat does. The sad part for them is that they clearly don’t believe they have anything original to offer, even though we all do. It just takes some serious work.

Another thing to keep in mind is that cool new moves are really only for yourself and other circus artists.  Your general audience does not give a crap nor can even recognize differences between acts. It’s about your performance. Below is one video I love to watch for inspiration. Shana Carroll’s piece isn’t particularly virtuosic nor is there anything in there that we don’t know. And yet her piece is totally original and totally her. Nobody else can really do what she does.

Have you dealt with plagarism – intended or unintended? Share your experiences in the comments below!