For our second article in the Adventures in Circus Research series, we hear from Dr. Louis Patrick Leroux, a pioneer of circus research in Quebec. His extensive experience as a playwright and director led him to an interest in circus when he noticed that certain renowned theatre directors (e.g. Robert Lepage,KA, Dominique Champagne,Vareikai,LoveandZumanity, René-Richard Cyr,Zumanity) were creating work with Cirque du Soleil. By founding the Montreal Working Group on Circus Research in 2010, Leroux has provided a forum within which academics, practitioners, students, and audiences can meet and share research about, and experiences of, the contemporary circus. Many publications on circus arts have come from the Working Group events, include a book on Quebec circus co-edited by Leroux and Charles Batson.

Leroux’s own research on circus arts has centered around the conditions of performance within contemporary circus, ranging from the physical experience of the performers, to the audience experience, to the creative approach taken by coaches, directors and dramaturgs. As an advocate of practice-as-research, an academic research met...