The smell of sawdust and popcorn fills the air. The clowns, acrobats and magicians are all in place. As the audience are guided to their seats inside the big top, all the classic elements of the circus are there – except one. The live animals have been replaced by holograms.
Because of concerns about animal welfare, Germany’s Roncalli circus stopped using lions and elephants in its shows in 1991. But it went further in 2018 and completely removed live animals from its programme.
“It is no longer appropriate for Roncalli to show real animals in the ring,” said the circus boss Patrick Philadelphia, 49.
Roncalli circus boss Patrick Philadelphia says it is no longer appropriate for them to show real animals in the ring. Photo: AFP
In recent years, circuses have found themselves increasingly constrained by space.
The nomadic character of circus life was also a strain for animals like horses which had to be loaded onto wagons and then driven to the next town.
“This no longer made sense for an animal-protecting circus,” said Philadelphia.
As Roncalli looked for ways to preserve the magic of animals for children, a show in which Justin Timberlake “collaborates” with a hologram of the late Prince triggered the idea to turn to 3D imagery.
Write to Win: What mythical animal did you wish existed? (Round 2)
“If you can project someone who’s no longer living onto a holographic screen, why can’t you do it with an animal, a horse, an elephant? So that’s where the idea came from,” Philadelphia said.
Designing the visual illusion was a technical challenge, as the circus seats its audience in a circle, unlike a theatre where the public sits in front of the stage.
Using 11 cameras, arranged on the ceiling of the big top around the ring, the high-resolution images are projected onto a fine-mesh netting which surrounds the performance space.
Justin Timberlake’s Super Bowl show with a hologram of music legend Prince is what inspired the Roncalli circus. Photo: AFP
When the lights go down, the netting becomes almost invisible, but the images pop out.
The absence of animals has become a draw in itself.
“I had never heard of Roncalli before. And then all I found out was that there were definitely no animals. That was especially important to me,” said student Sophie Schult, 29.
Previous visits to the circus with her family had left a bad impression on Schult.
Neglected elephant touches down in Thailand after more than 20 years in Sri Lanka
“I always saw the narrow cages where they [the animals) were all kept. That is basically animal cruelty,” she said during the intermission.
The performance works its magic on older audience members, too. Mathias and Marina Martens, both 63, said the spectacle made them feel like children again.
“The acrobatics on show here are amazing,” said Mathias Martens, before his wife chimed in: “You do not need the animals there. For that, you can go to the zoo and see them.”
Agence France-Presse
Find out more: why does a hologram appear to move when I look at it from different angles?
A hologram is somewhat like a cross between a real object and a photograph of it. It is a 3D image created by splitting a laser beam into two parts and then shining them on a photographic plate (see graphic).
Holograms appear to be 3D because every point in a hologram catches light waves that travel from every point on the actual object. This means that wherever you look at a hologram, you see exactly how light would have arrived at that point if you’d been looking at the real object.
So, as you look at it from different angles, the holographic image appears to change just as the image of a real object changes.
Another cool thing about a hologram is that if you break it into tiny pieces, you can still see the entire object in any of the pieces. This is because each piece of the hologram contains a complete record of the light rays from the object!
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tK%2FMqWWcp51kxrF7w6KqnKemmr9wusSwqmifnKSvoriOmqmtoZOhsnB%2FkWxvamhoZLSmvsyapWabmaewtr%2BMq5yppJGYsrR5y6KtnmWRo7aurcusZKGnnKS0s63MrGSarKSaurHA0manq52jmr%2B3sYymmKChk2Kur7XMmqOsZZOdtq2w0Z6lZq%2BZqbWwwdM%3D