Circus: Arts, Life and Sciences (CALS) values circus researchers and circus practitioners who actively make a place within their minds for that which is other (other cultures, other disciplines, other genders and other life experiences). Engaging with research and performances from other countries, learning new languages, practicing new disciplines and immersing oneself in experiences that are foreign to one’s own are all meaningful acts of reaching out beyond oneself to better understand the human condition. Therefore, we are pleased to introduce this special issue of CALS: a collection of works largely developed from the Circus and its Others (CaiO) conference in Bogotá, Colombia, 2024.

CaiO is an international research project that contributes to circus studies through an exploration of the ways in which difference, otherness and alterity are experienced in the practice of contemporary circus arts. It has been remarkable to watch this prolific group expand, grow and travel the world for over ten years as they continue to engage with a diverse range of circus communities. For this issue of CALS, guest editors Charles R. Batson, Marco Antonio Coelho Bortoleto, Karen Fricker, Julieta Infantino and Olga Lucía Sorzano have curated a collection of unique circus voices from the global South and beyond.

This seventh issue is also a milestone for CALS. In November of 2021, at the third international and the first digital CaiO conference, one of our founding co-editors-in-chief contributed a formal announcement that Circus: Arts, Life and Sciences would launch in 2022. Many participants at that CaiO gathering completed a short survey following that announcement, which helped the CALS team improve the structure of the nascent publication and gauge how many participants might submit their research. In 2025, as this issue goes to press, we can report that CALS has published six issues consisting of forty-eight total contributions, which have 8,332 downloads and 32,576 views. We are growing and the future is bright.

In this spirit, we encourage everyone to read, share, engage with and cite the works in this special issue. CaiO and CALS have a history of collaboration, shared research interests and now a publication together. We thank their editorial team, our team and all the contributors to this issue for increasing circus knowledge in the public commons made possible by the open access movement and other initiatives.