Cirque Performer Reportedly Injured During ‘O’ Show in Las Vegas

Posted on: June 29, 2023, 11:55h. 

Last updated on: June 29, 2023, 01:45h.

Corey Levitan Read More
Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Entertainment, Expert Insight, Las Vegas, Restaurants, Las Vegas Myths.

An acrobat in Cirque du Soleil’s “O” show at Bellagio was injured during the 9:30 p.m. performance on Wednesday, June 28, according to multiple reports.

The “O” show by Cirque du Soleil, which has run at the Bellagio in Las Vegas since 1998, features acrobats performing dangerous water stunts. (Image: Los Angeles Times)

“Laying motionless following the injury, full medical staff came out, show halted,” reported Casino.org’s own Vital Vegas blogger Scott Roeben, who broke the news on Twitter less than an hour after the incident.

The performer, whose name wasn’t released, was strapped to a stretcher and taken to an area hospital from the stage after the curtains were drawn. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the mishap occurred during a new routine that only debuted during Wednesday’s 7 p.m. show.

In the routine, the newspaper reported, the show’s acrobats form two three-person pyramids that fall into the water.  These are followed by another pair of performers who jump into the water and onto a rising lift. Apparently, however, the pair jumped a moment too late and collided with the lift. One acrobat received scrapes on his chest and abdomen, according to the R-J, while the more seriously injured performer seemed to strike his head.

After a heart-stopping pause of several minutes, the performance resumed, according to the R-J, and an announcement informed the shocked and concerned audience that the performer was OK.

In a follow-up tweet, Roeben shared more information from a fellow “O” cast member: “He back dove no hands onto head and neck” in two inches of water. According to the cast member, his prognosis is “good” and he “should be fine.”

Circus of Pain

The incident happened a day short of the 10-year anniversary of the only on-stage fatality suffered during one of Cirque’s Las Vegas Strip productions. On June 29, 2013, a cable connecting “Ka” performer Sarah Guyard-Guillot to her harness snapped, plunging the French acrobat almost 100 feet from the show’s rotating vertical stage to her death in a pit.

In 2014, another “O” acrobat fell 15 feet while dismounting from a swiveling swing apparatus, breaking his back and ribs and suffering damage to his kidney and lungs. A few months later, a “Beatles Love” acrobat plunged 20 feet to the stage during the show’s closing number, suffering internal injuries.

Cirque’s water-themed “O” opened at the Bellagio in 1998.

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