Ho-Chunk powwows are the oldest powwows in the Midwest and among the oldest in the nation, beginning in 1902 outside Black River Falls in west-central Wisconsin. Grant Arndt examines Wisconsin Ho-Chunk powwow traditions and the meanings of cultural performances and rituals in the wake of North American settler colonialism. As early as 1908 the Ho-Chunk people began to experiment with the commercial potential of the powwows by charging white spectators an admission fee. During the 1940s the Ho-Chunk people decided to de-commercialize their powwows and rededicate dancing culture to honor their soldiers and veterans. Powwows today exist within, on the one hand, a wider commercialization of and conflict between intertribal "dance contests" and, on the other, efforts to emphasize traditional powwow culture through a focus on community values such as veteran recognition, warrior songs, and gift exchange. In Ho-Chunk Powwows and the Politics of Tradition Arndt shows that over the past two centuries the dynamism of powwows within Ho-Chunk life has changed greatly, as has the balance of tradition and modernity within community life. His book is a groundbreaking study of powwow culture that investigates how the Ho-Chunk people create cultural value through their public ceremonial performances, the significance that dance culture provides for the acquisition of power and recognition inside and outside their communities, and how the Ho-Chunk people generate concepts of the self and their society through dancing.

In ancient Athens, the Panathenaia was the most important festival and was celebrated in honour of Athena from the middle of the sixth century BC until the end of the fourth century AD. This in-depth study examines how this all-Athenian celebration was an occasion for constructing identities and how it affected those identities. Since not everyone took part in the same way, this differential participation articulated individuals' relationships both to the goddess and to the city so that the festival played an important role in negotiating what it meant to be Athenian (and non-Athenian). Julia Shear applies theories of identity formation which were developed in the social sciences to the ancient Greek material and brings together historical, epigraphical, and archaeological evidence to provide a better understanding both of this important occasion and of Athenian identities over the festival's long history.

India's association with magicians goes back thousands of years. Conjurors and illusionists dazzled the courts of Hindu maharajas and Mughal emperors. As British dominion spread over the subcontinent, such wonder-workers became synonymous with India. Western magicians appropriated Indian attire, tricks and stage names; switching their turbans for top hats, Indian jugglers fought back and earned their grudging respect. This book tells the extraordinary story of how Indian magic descended from the realm of the gods to become part of daily ritual and popular entertainment across the globe. Recounting tales of levitating Brahmins, resurrections, prophesying monkeys and 'the most famous trick never performed', Empire of Enchantment vividly charts Indian magic's epic journey from street to the stage.

Now available in paperback, The Greatest Shows on Earth takes us from eighteenth-century hippodromes in Britain to intimate one-ring circuses in nineteenth-century Paris, where Toulouse-Lautrec and Picasso became enchanted by aerialists and clowns. We meet P. T. Barnum, James Bailey and the enterprising Ringling Brothers, who created the golden age of American circuses. We explore contemporary transformations of the circus, from the whimsical Circus Oz in Australia to New York City's Big Apple Circus. Circus people are central to the story: trick riders and tightrope walkers, sword swallowers and animal trainers, contortionists and clowns - these are the men and women who create the sensational, raucous, titillating and incomparable world of the circus. Beautifully illustrated, rich in historical detail and full of colourful anecdotes, Linda Simon's vibrant history is as enchanting as a night at the big-top itself.

Dan Rhodes is one of the most successful and beloved YouTuber and TikTok influencers in the world with more than 5 billion views on YouTube and the most viewed personal post ever - over 300 million views - on TikTok. In this, his debut book, Dan brings together the love and joy he has continually derived from magic - from the very first moment he received a magic kit from his parents when he was six years old setting him on his journey from amateur magician to global TikTok and YouTube star - and the book also gives tips and insights into how you could become a social media inspiration too. With striking illustrations throughout and clear 'trick guides' to help young magicians get started - along with some really impressive sleights of hand for the more experienced illusionist - Dan's book also contains a fascinating history of the craft of the magician, highlighting the skill and dedication it takes to become a true master.

This marvelous treasury of card magic presents the exact details of 155 professional card tricks that anyone can learn. The world's number-one card wizard, John Scarne, reworked an exciting series of classic card tricks to eliminate the need for sleight-of-hand. Simple instructions and clear diagrams illustrate Houdini's "Card on the Ceiling," Blackstone's "Card Trick Without Cards," Carlyle's "Piano Card Trick," Milton Berle's "Quickie Card Deal," and Scarne's own "Drunken Poker Deal" and "Knockout Card Trick." Scarne presents all tricks with advice on accompanying patter, offering helpful suggestions about the kinds of words and gestures that give performances a professional gloss. Introduction. Index.

While scholars have theorized major film festivals, they have ignored smaller, ephemeral, events. In taking seriously minor European and North-American LGBTQ festivals which often only exist as traces within archival collections, this book revisits festival studies' methodological and theoretical apparatuses. As the first 'critique' of festival studies from within, LGBTQ Film Festivals argues that both festivals and queer film cultures are by definition ephemeral. The book is organized around two concepts: First, 'critical festival studies' examines the political project and disciplinary assumptions that structure festival research. Second, 'the festival as a method' pays attention to festivals' role as producers of knowledge: it argues that festivals are not mere objects of research but also actors already shaping academic, industrial, and popular cinematic knowledge. Drawing on the author's experience on the festival circuit, this book pays homage to the labour of queer organizers, critics, and scholars and opens up new avenues for festival research.

Rodeo is a dangerous and painful performance in which only the strongest and most skilled riders succeed. In the popular imagination, the western rodeo hero is often a stoic white man who embodies the toughness and independence of America's frontier past. However, marginalized people have starred in rodeos since the very beginning. Cast out of popular western mythology and pushed to the fringes in everyday life, these cowboys and cowgirls found belonging and meaning at the rodeo, staking a claim to national inclusion. Outriders explores the histories of rodeoers at the margins of society, from female bronc-riders in the 1910s and 1920s and convict cowboys in Texas in the mid-twentieth century to all-black rodeos in the 1960s and 1970s and gay rodeoers in the late twentieth century. These rodeo riders not only widened the definition of the real American cowboy but also, at times, reinforced the persistent and exclusionary myth of an idealized western identity. In this nuanced study, Rebecca Scofield shares how these outsider communities courted authenticity as they put their lives on the line to connect with an imagined American West.

The pompa circensis, the procession which preceded the chariot races in the arena, was both a prominent political pageant and a hallowed religious ritual. Traversing a landscape of memory, the procession wove together spaces and institutions, monuments and performers, gods and humans into an image of the city, whose contours shifted as Rome changed. In the late Republic, the parade produced an image of Rome as the senate and the people with their gods - a deeply traditional symbol of the city which was transformed during the empire when an imperial image was built on top of the republican one. In late antiquity, the procession fashioned a multiplicity of Romes: imperial, traditional, and Christian. In this book, Jacob A. Latham explores the webs of symbolic meanings in the play between performance and itinerary, tracing the transformations of the circus procession from the late Republic to late antiquity.

Magic is a fabulous form of entertainment, both on a professional basis and in the home. This comprehensive book contains more than 375 tricks, ranging from card, money and mind magic, optical illusions and close-up magic to puzzles, party tricks and stand-up and stage illusions. More than 2500 step-by-step photographs reveal all the skills you need, and close-up secret views show how the illusions are performed, with tips on preparation and patter enabling you to achieve a polished performance. Whether you are a keen novice or want to expand your repertoire, this inspiring book will enable you to confound and amaze friends and family.

Delightful activity book for older children (and adults, too) shows how to create 34 fascinating shadows on a wall simply by positioning hands and fingers. Learn how to make a bird take flight, a duck quack, Toby the dog wag his tail, a rabbit munch his meal, and more.

Dudley Riggs didn't have to run away from home to join the circus. Home was the circus. Son of the acclaimed aerial flyers Riggs and Riggs, he made his circus debut as a polar prince parading in a wagon pulled by a polar bear. At the age of five, he graduated to a risque vaudeville act during the circus off- season; at eight, he outgrew his cutes (and his child stardom) and joined his high-flying parents on the trapeze. Eventually he had to learn to "fly funny" because he grew too tall to fly straight. In one way or another, Riggs has been flying ever since. The rest, as they say, is history. And what a story it is. In Flying Funny, Riggs shares many highs and lows while describing circus life and the evolution of America's popular entertainment during the twentieth century. From his early life in circus and vaudeville to his creation of the Brave New Workshop, we see how his show business experience and instincts helped him create in Minneapolis what became the "next wave" in American entertainment-improvisation. As a young man, Riggs lost everything in a tornado, got an education on the fly, and sailed with the All American circus to post-war Japan. On a slow boat home and restless about his future, he developed the idea of Word Jazz-creating a script on stage as it is being performed-and shortly after he opened the Instant Theater in New York. Later, he moved to Minneapolis where he founded the Brave New Workshop, launching the careers of comic greats such as Penn and Teller, The Flying Karamazov Brothers, Louie Anderson, Peter Tolan, Pat Proft, Nancy Steen, Liz Winstead, Al Franken and many others. Today, the Brave New Workshop thrives as the longest running improvisational theater in America. From flying funny on the trapeze to theater without a net, Dudley Riggs's story is filled with hearty laughs and eyebrow-raising insights. With a wry sense of humor and infectious warmth, he shares the exhilaration of flying whether through the air or on the stage.

For thousands of years, iconic speeches have helped to shape our world - but only because a decision was made to craft something special.

Even the greatest speeches required meticulous preparation, repeated rehearsals and expert delivery. Speech making is a skill that can be learned by everyone. It takes knowledge and expertise to prepare and deliver a truly memorable speech.

This book has the tips and advise you need to create and deliver sensational speeches.

The pompa circensis, the procession which preceded the chariot races in the arena, was both a prominent political pageant and a hallowed religious ritual. Traversing a landscape of memory, the procession wove together spaces and institutions, monuments and performers, gods and humans into an image of the city, whose contours shifted as Rome changed. In the late Republic, the parade produced an image of Rome as the senate and the people with their gods - a deeply traditional symbol of the city which was transformed during the empire when an imperial image was built on top of the republican one. In late antiquity, the procession fashioned a multiplicity of Romes: imperial, traditional, and Christian. In this book, Jacob A. Latham explores the webs of symbolic meanings in the play between performance and itinerary, tracing the transformations of the circus procession from the late Republic to late antiquity.

Featuring a wide array of iconic rock posters, period photographs, music memorabilia and light shows, "out-of-this-world" clothing, and avant-garde films, this catalogue celebrates San Francisco's rebellious and colorful counterculture that blossomed in the years surrounding the 1967 Summer of Love. This book explores, through essays and a succession of thematic plates, the visual and material cultures of a generation searching for personal fulfillment and social change. Presenting key cultural artifacts of the time, Summer of Love introduces and explores the events and experiences that today define this dynamic era. With essays by Victoria Binder, Dennis McNally, and Joel Selvin. Published in association with the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Exhibition dates: de Young, San Francisco: April 8-August 20, 2017

Fiesta: Branding and Identity of Festivals is a compilation of remarkable branding designs and campaigns for a variety of renowned festivals from around the world. The festivals examined span the worlds of music, cinema, design, gastronomy, culture, and art. These topics, and the freedom of creativity that come with them, allow to explore the limits of design, without the restraints that come with commercial projects. The identity and communication campaign strategies deployed by festivals encompass an endless array of design techniques, from graphic elements such as logos, posters, web pages, advertisements, mobile apps, tickets, and wristbands to collectible items like T- shirts, bags, and cups. This volume will inspire and serve as a useful tool for graphic designers and branding agencies that seek to handle challenging and wide-ranging festival projects with the highest degree of creativity and imagination, as well as for festival organizers and anyone interested in visual culture in general and eager to learn about new trends. The events featured show that the success of a festival has a close connection to its tailor- made branding and design and that no matter what the subject of the festival is, it is essential to have a coherent identity strategy.