Sometimes I think I have the best job in the world, especially when I count the number of circus shows I get to see in a year. In spite of the pandemic, this year has been no exception thanks to technology, and an invitation to join the voting committee for the International Circus Awards as editor at CircusTalk at that time.

After watching 60-plus circus shows in one month (thanks to Aaron Marquise of CCIAC), I can testify that some qualities of circus remain strong or have grown stronger in hard times; persistence, teamwork, and the willingness to face old problems with new questions are a few simple examples. Two of circus’ most enduring qualities are adaptability and innovation, and quite interestingly, these qualities have also shown up in this year’s trends. How can a trait be both enduring and a trend, you might rightly ask? I’d say it’s because circus reinvents itself and its qualities for every age, and the pandemic age seems to have sped up the processes of innovation and adaptation in the past year and a half, shining a new light on the uses of each quality. For example, innovation in 2018 might have been using a robot on stage as a circus partner, whereas innovatio...