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The Great International Circus at Olympia
Both new circus and traditional circus in the 21st century draw on a multi-national pool of performers. The appeal of the circus has remained more universal abroad and Monte Carlo still stages the prestigious annual World Circus Championships, which attract a wide and enthusiastic audience.
Many of the traditional touring circuses still operating in the UK employ performers from eastern European countries such as Romania, Hungary and Russia. Here circus is still popular and the opportunities for training on the road still exist. Circus Knie in Switzerland even has its own train with specially constructed circus trailers to tour its circus across the country.
British circuses continue to tent abroad and to include top international acts in their programmes whilst international touring circuses regularly visit the UK. These include the Chinese State Circus, a mainly acrobatic circus featuring balancing acts, plate spinning, ropedancers, tumblers, foot jugglers and many more gravity defying acts.
The Moscow State Circus has its home in a six ring amphitheatre in Moscow which opened in 1971. The varied programme includes such novelties as a circus on ice and a circus ballet. Moscow State Circus tours to 20 countries per year. Its characteristic big red tent can be seen in many UK cities. Moscow State Circus includes a programme of traditional circus acts: trapeze, clowns, juggling, high wire acts along with magic and some trained animals. However the animal acts do not tour to the UK.
These are the largest touring circuses regularly to visit the UK.
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