The UniverSoul Circus is a single ring
circus
A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicyclist ...
, established in 1994 by Cedric Walker and Calvin "Casual Cal" Dupree, an
African-American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...
man who had a vision of creating a circus with a large percentage of
people of color performing. He began searching for people from all around the world with incredible talents. It is headquartered in
Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
,
Georgia.
History
The UniverSoul Circus was founded in 1994. The history section of the official website states that "We had the idea to present ... to a wide demographic of spectators."
Recruiting, training and production began in 1993. The first performance took place in 1994 in the parking lot of
Atlanta Fulton County Stadium
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
, a couple of years before the stadium closed and demolished the following year. The first season of operations brought formidable debt upon the organization. By 1997 the circus tour grew to 10 cities, 19 cities in 1999, 31 cities in 2000, and 32 cities in 2005. An
Emmy Award
The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...
-winning special featuring the circus debuted in 1998 on cable TV network
HBO
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...
. A tour of
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
, the first international destination, was completed in 2001.
UniverSoul Circus through some of its animal vendors has had several animal cruelty allegations dating from 1997 to the present time. It also has had incidents of animals escaping.
References
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Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Universoul Circus
Circuses