The health of women circus artists gets a three-year research cycle

If you have trained through your period, performed with endometriosis or tried to come back to the ring after having a child, this day is about you. On Monday 2 November, the CNAC, the national higher-education circus school in Châlons-en-Champagne, holds a study day called La santé des circassiennes: the health of women circus artists.

It opens a three-year cycle on the body of a woman circus artist across her whole working life. The CNAC says it will approach the subject through research, from sociology and history to medical humanities, and through artistic practice. The cycle ends with a teaching booklet that comes with a podcast.

Concretely, the CNAC wants this to reach students. The aim is to work with the higher-education circus schools so that health becomes part of what they learn about professional life.

So what is on the first day? The morning is about menstruation and endometriosis. Aline Paintendre, a lecturer at the Université de Reims who researches menstruation in sport and the arts, talks about how the menstruating bodies of women in circus are made invisible.

Louna Soulé, a PhD student in sport science who did circus for ten years, follows with endometriosis and the body in movement. She points out how little research there is on endometriosis and physical activity.

The afternoon is about motherhood. Magali Sizorn, a researcher at the Université de Rouen, looks at motherhood as a driver of commitment for women artists and athletes. Her fieldwork is on body practices in the arts, circus in particular.

Then Tatiana-Mosio Bongonga, a tightrope walker for more than 30 years and co-artistic director of Compagnie Basinga, asks how to become a mother and stay a circus artist. Her point: motherhood gets treated as a private matter, when it involves the whole profession around the artist.

The day runs from 9:00 to 17:00 at the CNAC's resource centre. Its partner is Thalie Santé, the occupational health service for artists and technicians in French live performance.

Booking is required, by email to recherche@cnac.fr. The CNAC doesn't say whether it's free, or whether it will be filmed for anyone who can't get to Châlons.