Aerialists of the Hungarian troupe Vincze Tunde Production perform on the opening night of Strand Festival in Zamardi, Hungary, 20 August 2025. (Photo by Tamas Vasvari/EPA)

A member of a Chinese opera troupe applies make-up before performing at a shrine during the annual vegetarian festival in Bangkok, Thailand, on October 4, 2016. (Photo by Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters)

A propaganda troupe perform a flag- waving routine outside the central railway station in Pyongyang, North Korea on September 27, 2017. (Photo by Ed Jones/AFP Photo)

Members of the China Disabled People’s Performing Art Troupe take part in the thousand-hand Bodhisattva dance in Mississauga, Canada on November 8, 2018. (Photo by Zou Zheng/Xinhua News Agency/Barcroft Images)

Shaolin monks of the Dengfeng Zhongyue Shaolin Boxing Culture Troupe from Henan Province in China perform in Valletta, Malta, September 17, 2016. (Photo by Darrin Zammit Lupi/Reuters)

Members of the Shanxi Folk Dance and Music Troupe perform during a rehearsal before a show at the Orient Museum in Lisbon February 1, 2016. The show is part of the Chinese New Year Celebrations program of Orient Museum in Lisbon. (Photo by Rafael Marchante/Reuters)

Giffords Circus’s show is touring the UK. Established in 2000, Giffords Circus is a small circus company that delivers circus / theatre fusion to the villages and market towns of the south west. It combines dance, comedy, horses and live music in a two-hour show, located on village greens in a small white tent surrounded by handmade burgundy and gold showman’s wagons. Photographer Tom Pilston goes behind the scenes to meet the performers. Here: The incredible, gravity-defying Konjowoch Troupe. (Photo by Tom Pilston/The Guardian)