As a circus artist based in the Netherlands, these are some of the observations I’ve made during this self-quarantine. They’re not statistically backed up, nor observed through an academic lens. They’re small snapshots of what is going on around me amidst this pandemic that has stalled the economy, our countries and our careers.

The timeline of all performance venues, gyms and social activities closing down is pretty clear in retrospect, and truth be told, it’s also not particularly interesting. What’s interesting is how we handle and adapt to such a big change in our daily lives. I say ‘we’ as a larger circus collective, but since the self-isolation procedures started, I’ve only been in contact with a handful of friends, so what I actually mean is ‘me and some other circus artists in Rotterdam’, and ‘circus friends around the world that I stay in touch with over the internet’. That social media plays a large part of our day to day lives is nothing new, but the speed of our (‘our’ meaning the friends I follow on Instagram) interactions is what is different. Within the first weeks of self-isolation, I had already gotten more Instagram story-challenges than I can recall having gotten in the past six months, and they just kept coming. ...