Dr. Florence Legendre is part of a team of researchers that research how people within circus learn to be part of their professional communities, especially how students in professional schools learn about risk and risk management in circus arts, and how circus educators learn to teach circus arts. France has approximately 500 circus schools, including recreational, pre-professional, and professional training. Because her research is in the field of sociology, it always explores the relationship between individuals and the society they live in. Research from this team tries to understand the culture of circus instruction in different educational settings. Understanding how circus culture is being taught has illuminated positive and negative habits of teaching culture, which then enables circus organizations to retain or change those methods of teaching. The research that Florence and the CIRRC are conducting has significantly contributed to how circus education and circus teaching is understood and studied in France, and across Europe. They publish their research in academic journals and books, but also have worked on FEDEC projects that result in open-access publications. 

gs. Understanding how circus culture is being taught has illuminated positive and negative habits of  teaching culture, which then enables circus organizations to retain or change those methods of teaching. The research that Florence and the CIRRC are conducting has significantly contributed to how circus education and circus teaching is understood and studied in France, and across Europe. They publish their research in academic journals and books, but also have worked on FEDEC projects that result in open-access publications.  This is the story of the development of CIRRC, an interdisciplinary group of circus researchers in the Champagne region of France. It is the spring of 2011, at the University of Reims, and Delphine Lafollie, Vincent Grosstephan and myself, Florence Legendre, are having lunch together. We do not know each other very well; Delphine and I are both newcomers to the un...