From the French quarter, tableau has been one of the principal creation tools to add aesthetic to precision athletics and stage craft. The Anglosphere is catching up, bringing it’s penchant for dramatic narrative into the mix, pairing directors and choreographers to add tangible story-craft to precision athletics. And its all working thanks to the willing imaginations of audiences and creators.

The days of family circus dynasties are quickly waning with the popularization of the art form, and the consequent rise of serious training facilities who supply the industry with new talent. You don’t need to be born into a family of masters any longer in order to become a world-class practitioner, though it should be noted that the family dynasties still occupy a certain position of royalty in the business….the Flying Wallendas for example.

When Sharon’s Uncle, Thomas Clark, passed away a few of years ago, he left a small trove of photos and articles, and within there we discovered a faded newspaper clipping titled “WEDDING RINGS AND THE SAWDUST RING” picturing the marriage of one Beryl Clark, to one Lothar Loffler in Dundee (UK) as they ride off to the reception in their splendid finery….on elephants.

Both worked in the circus. We didn’t hear anything about this from Uncle Thomas while he was alive. I suppose riding off to their reception in splendid finery is one thing…but the elephants were quite another, and were, perhaps, the elephants in the room as far as the family went.

There is no date on the article, but as luck would have it, on the reverse side are cinema listings which allowed us to check movie titles against release dates, narrowing the year to 1954.

61 years later, we hope that Beryl and Lothar would be proud that some of the family are still in the circus…..a sort of unintentional dynasty. I suppose if, as Shakespeare says, “truth will out”, so must the circus.

Derek Aasland & Sharon Moore

There is Circus hidden in the family! by Derek Aasland

Wedding Rings and Saw Dust Rings. Circus in the family.