Verne Dawson (b. 1961)

'They're the most intact manifestation of Paleolithic life. There is a pole holding up the Big Top and you have a ring. Within that ring, animals come in and circle around: it's a model of the heaven and the Zodiac. In a three-ring circus, you have another pole for the moon, and another one for Venus. So it's basically a model of Stone Age astronomy, being done as a ballet. People take their children to circuses because we're most receptive to learning when we're young. It's one way to make sure that the information keeps getting imprinted for generations'.
(V. Dawson, quoted in 'The Outsider in: The Art of Verne Dawson', Cooper Union, Winter 2008, p. 15).