”Circus as Practices of Hope” by Marie-Andrée Robitaille

Circus as Practices of Hope is Marie-Andree Robitaille's doctoral project in performative and mediated practices, specializing in circus and choreography at Stockholm University of the Arts. Her research is in response to the growing complexities and radical changes emerging from the convergence of the fourth industrial revolution, the sixth mass extinction, and the eco-socio-political turmoil of our time. It asks: How can circus arts contribute to developing embodied practices to help navigate the current significant paradigm shift in this contemporary planetary context?

The project is rooted in circus choreography, pedagogy and artistic research. The project engages critical and philosophical posthumanism and neo-materialist movements of thought to revise, through artistic practices, what qualifies as risk, how mastery is embodied, and where virtuosity is located in circus arts. By doing so, the project aims to identify and articulate circus epistemic, ontological and ethical specificities and their potential for the enactment of qualitative transformations. The project aims to contribute to the need to recompose the notions of human subjectivity and embodiment in circus arts and the broader hopeful perspectives of futurities on Earth. 

Project 2019-2024