Covid-19 hits circus’s big event but the show goes on

French Circus Biennale festival goes ahead behind closed doors as woes continue for performing arts

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  Performer Alice Rende from Brazil limbers-up before performing her contortionism show at the International Circus Arts Biennale, in Marseille, Frane. AP Photo

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  Sylvie Guillermin, choreographer of "Parallèle 26", a creation with the Archaos circus company featuring students acrobats and dancers prepares the stage at Theatre de La Criee. AP Photo

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  Dancers, Tasha Petersen from Argentina, top, and Joaquin Medina Caligari from Uruguay, of the Eolienne company prepare before performing "Le Lac des Cygnes" by Florence Caillon. AP Photo

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  Performers Pauline Barboux and Jeanne Ragu of the Libertivore company present their show "Ether". AP Photo

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  A banner announces the International Circus Arts Biennale, that will take place behind closed doors at the Archaos Circus compagnie theater in Marseille. AP Photo

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  Performer Alice Rende from Brazil prepares before performing "Passages". AP Photo

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  Dancers, from left to right, Tasha Petersen from Argentina, Lucille Chalopin from Paris, Marius Fouilland from France, and Joaquin Medina Caligari from Uruguay, of the Eolienne company perform "Le Lac des Cygnes" by Florence Caillon. AP Photo

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  Dancer Lucille Chalopin, from Paris, of the Eolienne company stretches prior to performing "Le Lac des Cygnes". AP Photo

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  French tightrope walker Tatiana-Mosio Bongoga, presents her documentary on her performance on a 400-meter tightrope walk that was suspended at a height of 40 meters across the Vltava river in Prague in 2019. AP Photo

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  Sylvie Guillermin, choreographer of "Parallèle 26" prepares the stage at Theatre de La Criee. AP Photo

The world’s top circus festival went ahead in 2021 despite the Covid-19 pandemic, but stripped of the tens of thousands of spectators who usually head to the south of France to see the contortionists, acrobats and tumblers demonstrating their skills before bookers and talent-spotters.

The fourth staging of the Circus Biennale, held every two years in the Mediterranean port city of Marseille, ended on Saturday in front of just 2,000 circus professionals instead of the 110,000 spectators who attended the last event in 2019.

Virus safety signs put up at the port-side venue showed a clown with red nose, bow tie and protective face mask, and the accompanying text: “Having a big nose does not exempt you from wearing one.”

The organisers said they were able to stage the event after long-running discussions with the French authorities.

“We started with a plan A, then plan B, then plan C, then plan D, and finally we decided to do plan E, which was a Biennale for professionals,” said festival organiser Raquel Rache de Andrade. “That was possible; we were allowed to do it,”

The performing arts have been hit badly across the globe because of lockdowns and social distancing rules introduced to stop the spread of the virus.

Acrobats Gioia Zanaboni, from Italy, top, and Anja Eberhart from Switzerland of the Zania company practise in a public park before their show at the festival. AP

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said the performing arts are among the worst-hit sectors from the pandemic. It warned last year of redundancies, reduced wages for performers and long-lasting impacts on the sector.

In France, theatres, concert halls and other venues have been closed since October 30 owing to Covid-19. Before that, they were shut from mid-March to late June. It is uncertain when the performing arts will be able to begin again.

But it is important to show that culture is essential, said Yoann Bourgeois, a dancer and choreographer who trained in the circus arts.

“The management of this crisis has had an extremely violent impact on poets, artists, people who dedicate their lives to culture in general," Bourgeois said. "It has categorised what is considered essential or non-essential. We are convinced that poetry is essential to live.”