Be my (body) guest: a self-reflective account of digital social practice

The use of digital technologies within social circus practice enables participants to re-appropriate their bodies and reconfigures agency within performance. This short self-reflective article discusses my experiences of digital social circus practice, centred on my practice-based Ph.D. research. Building on eight years’ experience of circus cabaret performance and teaching, my research investigates notions of the gaze, representation of the female body and female agency within digital social circus practice. This article will first outline my background and the experiences that led to this study, before offering a reflective account of my pilot study research that saw the creation of a small digital social circus group and finally discuss a recent research performance showcase which displayed fractured viewpoints of the female aerialist.