Cirque 'Devastated' By Acrobat's Fatal Vegas Fall

[Hissyspit]

Source: Associated Press

CIRQUE 'DEVASTATED' BY ACROBAT'S FATAL VEGAS FALL

By MICHELLE RINDELS

— Jul. 1 3:19 PM ED

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The founder of Cirque du Soleil says his tight-knit performance company is "completely devastated" after a veteran acrobat died in Las Vegas over the weekend in a fall witnessed by the audience.

Coroner's officials said Sarah Guillot-Guyard, 31, was pronounced dead at a hospital late Saturday night after falling about 50 feet from the show's stage during a production of "Ka" at the MGM Grand.

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The incident was the first stage casualty in the company's 29-year history, according to Cirque spokeswoman Renee-Claude Menard.

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Visitor Dan Mosqueda of Colorado Springs, Colo., said the woman was being hoisted up the side of the stage when it appeared that she detached from her safety wire and plummeted to an open pit below the stage. "Initially, a lot of people in the audience thought it was part of the (show)," he told the Sun. "But you could hear screaming, then groaning, and we could hear a female artist crying from the stage."

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Menard said she could confirm that Guillot-Guyard didn't slip out of her harness, but couldn't provide additional information about the incident.

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/audience-heard-acrobats-cries-fatal-vegas-fall

[Ilsa]

1. Horribly sad. I wonder if she missed

something in putting on her harness.

Extreme danger like this bothers me to watch. It interferes with my enjoyment of shows.

[madokie]

7. I can't watch

for the same reason

[austinlw]

2. Ka

is an amazing show. I've seen it twice and enjoy listening to the soundtrack. This is very sad, but these people are doing very physical acrobatic stunts using potentially dangerous equipment, night after night - plus all of the rehearsals. It's a credit to them that they have done all of these shows around the world, year after year, with many ongoing shows in Las Vegas alone, and this is the first stunt-related fatality.

[glinda]

3. Awful.....

[dipsydoodle]

4. Tragic

RIP.

[Link Speed]

5. Damn. I knew her.

Sarah was one of a smaller troupe who performed for a benefit for Pet's LifeLine a few years back. They lived on our property for a week and it was a blast. They never walked, but skipped, danced and tumbled everywhere they went.

Sarah was a beautiful, vibrant young woman. She told me she had always wanted to do exactly what she was doing and had been doing it since she was four years old.

A sad day, indeed.

[Beacool]

6. I'm so sorry.

I saw a pic of her with her small children. How sad for them to lose their mom at such a young age. My condolences to her loved ones.

May Sarah rest in peace.