Artletic Science

11/25/2025

Skip to the end of Chapter 12 in “An International Circus Affair” for a spotlight on Pickle Family Circus clown, Diane “Pino” Wasnak and the story of how Master Lu Yi chose to pass on his bike act to her in 1990. This was an act tossing bowls on a bike. One he created and performed first in China.

Pino spent 8 hours a day, 7 days a week learning to ride the bicycle backwards in a circle for a 1000 circles each time. Next came learning to kick metal bowls onto her head while riding the bike backwards.

It took 2 years to get this act to performance level and she went on to perform this act all over the world for more than 25 years. When Diane retired from this act, she passed it on to .quesada, a San Francisco Youth Circus alumni who was also trained by Lu Yi and Xia Ke Min. Ori premiered this act a few months ago with .

11/24/2025

What a special recognition from the Circus Historical Society just in time for the one year anniversary of the publication of “An international circus affair: How a Nanjing acrobat in San Francisco changed American circus forever.”

The Stuart Thayer Prize is an award that recognizes the highest quality research, scholarship, and writing about American circus history. Our book was a finalist for the 2025 award.

Thanks to for inviting me to be a part of this incredible project with .quesada and capturing the story of Master Lu Yi and his influence on San Francisco circus community.

11/22/2025

Newest publication by the SIRC working group! Thanks to & David Munro for collaborating on this!

This chapter consolidates injury surveillance research in circus and aligns it, as possible, with our earlier consensus statement for recording and reporting methods of injuries and illness. We also make recommendations for interpreting the existing research and directions for future research.

Ours is one chapter in this entire book dedicated to performing arts medicine.

Available now at major bookstores as an ebook or softcover book.

10/24/2025

📝The submission deadline for the next general issue of Circus: Arts, Life & Sciences is November 1st, 2025. This is the only research journal dedicated to the circus arts and is completely open access. I serve as the co-editor of the sciences so please reach out with any questions.

The journal co-hosted the first day of the Australian Cirvus Summit and brought a little magic to the day. He is co-chief editor with the also magical .

🦘The day before the summit Emily O’Connor and David Munro took the CALS team to the Healesville Sanctuary to experience the amazing animals of Australia. Truly amazing day!

10/18/2025

A few highlights from an amazing few days at the Australian Circus Summit hosted by . The first day brought together circus researchers from around the world including all but one of our SIRC team, Janine Stubbe David Munro & Veronique Richard.

The 1st day was co-sponsored by Circus: Arts, Life and Sciences, our open access peer-reviewed journal dedicated to circus. It was also great to catch up with my fellow editors and talk to potential authors about submitting to the journal.

The summit brought together researchers, artists, coaches, artistic directors and performing arts administrators. We need more opportunities like this to learn from and support each other in helping the circus arts to thrive!!

10/04/2025

10/04/2025

08/10/2025

*Research opportunity*

Researchers at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) and University of New South Wales are collaborating with the Royal Academy of Dance Australia to develop a digital resource to promote health literacy and awareness of low energy availability in the dance community.

The research team are seeking members of the dance community to provide feedback on our digital resource 🩰🕺🏽🍽️🤸🏻‍♂️🏋🏽‍♀️

Focus groups will take place online in August 2025.

To find out more contact Caitlin Attwell c.attwell@ecu.edu.au

Ethics Approval Number: 2023-04854-NICHOLAS