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Circus
A circus is usually a traveling group of performers such as acrobats, clowns, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, unicyclists and other stunt-oriented artists.
The word also describes the performance that they give, which is usually a series of acts that are choreographed to music and introduced by a "ringmaster". The traditional circus is held in an oval or circular arena called a ring, which has tiered seating around its edge. In the case of traveling circuses this location is often a large tent which is nicknamed the "big top".
In arenas too large for speech to be easily audible, the traditional comic dialog of the clown assumed a less prominent place than formerly, while the vastly increased wealth of stage properties relegated to the background the old-fashioned equestrian feats, which were replaced by more ambitious acrobatic performances, and by exhibitions of skill, strength and daring, requiring the employment of immense numbers of performers and often of complicated and expensive machinery.
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