A DIY Story of Circus Art

In 2000, Annie started up a new circus company with her husband in Edmonton, Alberta and hasn’t looked back since.

“If you have a good idea, people in Edmonton will get on board,” Annie explains.

“There are not a ton of barriers here—not every place is like that. People want interesting things to happen here, and they try to help you succeed.”

Circus artists from a Firefly Theatre show exploring themes from Dante’s Inferno.
Photo courtesy of Firefly Theatre & Circus.

With that kind of community support, Annie was able to grow her vision for circus arts in Edmonton from the creation of its first circus school, over 20 years ago, to several new initiatives today.

“A lot has changed over the years,” she says. “Cirque du Soleil’s emergence from Quebec really opened the door. It added a sublime quality around circus arts, opening the market, and then the Internet just made things explode. Circus today is enjoyed by all demographics—it’s for everyone.”

Annie’s own circus story began after a career stint as a photojournalist, when she landed a life-changing, dream job: looking after circus horses.

The job married Annie’s childhood love of horses to the lure of circus arts, and, despite not being born in the circus world, she persevered, drawn in by the emerging popularity of aerial silks and the opportunity to take storytelling to a whole new level.

A new journey soon emerged as she worked to merge aspects of circus with theatre art in the name of story.

“I realized the number of amazing people in Canada who were making great art,” says Annie. “The glass just seemed full here.”

These days, Annie and her creative team are busy with several projects.

For example, they offer subsidized training spaces so that people in the arts community can diversify their creativity.

They also create and produce shows like their current offering, Montage, a contemporary show that features stunt fighting, built on the authentic stories of the performers themselves.

Importantly, they also act as a hub to help artists evolve from emerging to professional circus artists.

“We wanted to expand circus across Canada […] to break down silos and to try to collaborate more,” says Annie. So, she founded the Alberta Circus Arts Festival, the only circus arts festival in Western Canada.

“The pandemic changed things. It opened new doors for collaboration, new connections started virtually, and this festival emerged so that Alberta-based artists could meet their counterparts across the country and others can see what’s going on in Alberta. Things are pretty good here!”

And it’s all work that couldn’t be done without funding support, including multi-year grants from the Canada Council for the Arts.

“These kinds of grants are about supporting organizations with stable funding over several years,” explains Michèle Stanley, Acting Director of Core Grants at the Canada Council for the Arts. “They can be a considerable benefit to organizations with a history of funding from the Canada Council.”

To Annie, the funding is about survival.

“If you have core support, you know you will exist. When you struggle to survive, it’s easy to be too absorbed by that stress to be truly inventive. When you have access to stable funding, creators can operate, pay the bills and have the space to dream and think up what’s next.”

As for what’s next for her, Annie says she’s looking forward to seeing where circus arts will grow.

“More and more presenters out there seem to realize that circus sells tickets, which is fabulous. When you’re in that place of opportunity, more and more artists and companies will create, so I’m excited to see how circus arts will evolve in Canada.”