Injury Surveillance Research
My first study of injuries in pre-professional and professional circus artists, was a pilot study at Kinetic Arts Center in Oakland, CA from 2017-2018. In Fall 2018, I was able expand this prospective, longitudinal study, with the help of a grant from Samuel Merritt University, to a multi-center study conducted at 10 sites around the country: The Circus Project (Portland, OR), New England Center for Circus Arts (Brattleboro, VT), Circadium,(Philadelphia, PA) and Esh Circus Arts (Somerville, MA)Versatile Arts (Seattle, WA), Kinetic Arts Center (Oakland, CA), MOTH Contemporary Circus Center (Denver, CO), Kinetic Theory (Los Angeles, CA), Sky Candy (Austin, TX), AcroSports (San Francisco, CA). This study concluded in February 2021.
Surveillance of Injuries for Research in Circus (SIRC) consensus working group is made up of circus arts researchers in injury and illness epidemiology, performing arts medicine, and circus practitioners from around the world. Dr. Stephanie Greenspan is the chair of the working group that includes David Munro PT, PhD, Joanna Nicholas PhD, Melanie Stuckey PhD, Janine Stubbe PhD, Rogier van Rijn PhD, and Fleur van Rens PhD. The overall consensus group includes Evert Verhagen PhD, Marco Bortoleto PhD, Alisan Funk PhD, Chris Gatti PhD, and Kathy Yu, MD.