Interview with Jennifer Miller.

Summary: Interview with performance artist Jennifer Miller, director of New York's troupe Circus Amok (www.circusamok.org), conducted by Mila Aponte-González for the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics (www.hemisphericinstitute.org). In this interview, Miller talks about the origins, adventures and exploits of Circus Amok, commenting on the troupe's training, the politics and aesthetics of street performance, their experiences as political and queer performers in and for New York City communities, some recurrent topics in their work, and how their aesthetic influences and creative methods juggle between performance and politics in a collaborative atmosphere. Circus Amok is a New York City based circus-theater company whose mission is to provide free public art addressing contemporary issues of social justice to the people of New York City. Directed and founded by Miller, the group has been together since 1989 bringing its funny, queer, caustic and sexy, political one-ring spectacles to diverse neighborhoods throughout the city. Over the years the traditional circus skills - tight rope walking, juggling, acrobatics, stilt walking, clowning - have been combined with experimental dance, lifesize puppetry, music old and new, and gender-bending performance art and improvisational techniques, creating new meanings for circus while continuing to entertain the crowds of all ages throughout the city streets, gardens, parks, and playgrounds, inviting the audience to join them in envisioning a more empowered life of community interaction while enjoying a queer celebratory spectacle.

Credits: Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics, producer ; Melissa Maldonado, videographer.

Credits: Jennifer Miller, interviewee ; Mila Aponte-González, interviewer.