The oxford english dictionary, defines sport primarily as ‘Senses relating to play, pleasure, or entertainment.’
In a rapidly changing Australia, Traditional tented circuses are struggling to obtain council permits to operate their big tops. Meanwhile, tribal sports such as Cricket, Football and Soccer are seeing reduced participation.
“Statistics show a continued decline in organized sport participation over the past decade, with the ‘Intergenerational Review of Australian Sport‘ report predicting participation will further drop to 10% of the population by 2030.” – Monash University
Circus Tricks currently operates our community based sporting services in Wurundjeri country, where the local Darebin council has created an Infastructure Framework which claims that its current sporting facilities ‘operate at 64% capacity.’ This document alleges growth in participation, despite reported findings begging to differ. Australia is expected to hit 30 million population by 2050, however a reduced participation in sporting groups has rate payers wonder why such disproportionate spending is allocated to building cricket nets and ovals that are predominantly unoccupied.
When pigeonholed into the performing arts sector, our industry is struggling to pay athletes that identify as artists. The issue is cultural, whereby the myth of the ‘starving artist’ is perpetuated by disproportionate spending of recreational service budgets towards tribal sports, whilst the arts receive a small piece of that pie.
Circus Tricks aims to activate these unused public spaces by producing recreational events that encourage participation in physical activities existing outside of tribal sports programing.
our upcoming events include; spring/summer hula hoop troupe and ‘bendy bodies’ acrobatic workshops.
Stay in the loop
Want to see more of our articles? click here to sign up for our monthly newsletter.
you can show your support by becoming a member of Circus Tricks. membership benefits include:
tickets to the annual Circus Gala Ball, access to unlisted youtube tutorials, networking opportunities via quarterly teams meetings and exclusive offers on merchandise.
Sources
- oxford english dictionary https://www.oed.com/viewdictionaryentry/Entry/187476
- Monash University https://lens.monash.edu/@education/2021/09/01/1383690/sport-for-all-why-australian-sport-needs-to-embrace-informal-participation
- Sport Australia https://www.sportaus.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/660395/Intergenerational_Review_of_Australian_Sport_2017.pdf
- Wurundjeri organisation https://www.wurundjeri.com.au/
- Darebin City Council https://www.darebin.vic.gov.au/-/media/council/files/about-council/councillors-and-meetings/governance-and-transparency/council-policies-and-strategies/outdoorsportsinfrastructureframeworkjune2020apdf.ashx