The staging of danger and feat is a main element of circus. Since about fifteen years circus arts in France are characterized by creations that renew the treatment and stakes of risk taking. On the basis of an ethnographic survey started in 2002 in one of the eleven regional « circus-poles » near Limoges and continued today in the Parisian region this article proposes a reflexion on the meaning of risk in the relation that circus artists have to their audience. This approach differs from the theories based on sacrifice and ordeal. Far from being disregarded and based on distantiation risk is part of a process that favours the expression and sharing of emotions through corporal involvement. It becomes the basis of a new artistic, aesthetic and social approach.