One of the primary purposes of Circus: Arts, Life and Sciences is to offer guidance—expert advice and information that helps others solve current problems or overcome obstacles. This issue of CALS brings together a group of circus specialists whose research offers solutions to challenges such as the systematic ordering of circus arts, the analysis of embodiment, the pedagogy of movement creativity and how to think through the history of circus to better understand its present and future.

The Arts section of this issue begins with Amanda K. Gatewood and LaReina Hingson’s “A Review of Circus Classification Systems,” which contributes new ideas for mapping and defining the essence of circus. The authors have conducted a fascinating study of six diverse approaches from various parts of the world for classifying the ineffable circus arts. Readers will find these taxonomies useful for their own mental maps of each discipline. Next, Kristy Seymour’s “A Rhythm of Bodies: Making the Impossible Plausible Through Physicality, Risk and Trust in A Simple Space” explores the relationship between theory and practice. This article applies concepts from Deleuze and Guattari, Jondi Keane and the authors’ own theoretical thinking to better analyze virtuosic work by the Gravity and Other Myths circus company. Nele Wynants’s “Wallenda’s Wonderful Performing Dogs: Challenges and Opportunities for a Transnational Circus and Funfair Historiography” concludes the Arts section of this issue with novel research on a German performer whose nineteenth-century shows were a hybrid of circus and funfair content.

In the Sciences section, “An Exploration of Physical Literacy and Movement Creativity” by Natalie Houser and colleagues shares new research on the associations between physical literacy and movement creativity in fifth-grade physical education. The authors suggest that inventiveness might be lacking in traditional physical education pedagogy and recommend the inclusion of more exploratory-based activities, such as circus, dance and parkour.

This issue concludes with two exciting book reviews. First, Paloma Leyton reviews Franziska Trapp’s new collection, 360° Circus: Meaning. Practice. Culture. Her review emphasizes the value of the diverse contributions to circus studies contained in Trapp’s volume, which focuses on aesthetics, practice and culture. Finally, interdisciplinary researcher Tim Overkempe contributes a review of the recent collection Circus, Science and Technology: Dramatising Innovation, edited by Anna-Sophie Jürgens. The book explores the historical intersection and influence of science, engineering and technology in the context of past and present circus performances.

As always, we are delighted to be sharing the expertise of these authors with the global circus community as part of the open access movement. We thank the journal directors, editorial team, contributing authors, peer-reviewers, translators and publishers who have made this issue possible. May it serve to guide future circus research in our constant journey to reach greater heights of understanding.