A scene from “O” showcases the grace and fluidity athletes master for acts such as aerial hoops. Photo: Véronique Vial Costume: Dominique Lemieux

Whether you’re seeing KÀ™, Zumanity™, Mystère®, or “O”® in Las Vegas or any of the Cirque du Soleil® shows traveling the world, Cirque grabs you and holds on tight, from the moment you step into the magical world they’ve conjured to the final ovation.

You may wonder who all those performers are and where they came from. Currently, there are more than 800 performers from 40 nations appearing in Cirque du Soleil shows, and while many come from circus schools, theatre, music, and dance backgrounds, more than 600 of them are former athletes. And how do they make it look so effortless? The same way you get to Carnegie Hall: Practice! Practice! Practice!

Spotting Talent
Cirque talent spotters monitor all kinds of sporting events, including the Olympics, and each spring some 60 candidates are invited to take part in Cirque’s General Training Program. Since the requirements of Cirque du Soleil and the demands of sports competition are at opposite ends of the spectrum, most athletes invited to train find the transition far from smooth.

They need to master certain disciplines for which there is no direct sports equivalent: such mainstay circus acts as flying trapeze, high bars, Chinese poles, Russian swing, and tissu (the elegant act in which fabric is used for support in a series of contortions in midair) require an entirely new set of skills.

“The next challenge is that the majority come from individual sports like diving and swimming, where they train solo,” says Head Coach Boris Verkhovsky, former coach of the Soviet Union national acrobatics team. “Although they are used to training in a group environment, it’s usually for an individual performance. When they come to Cirque, they have to perform as a group, so they have to become a team player.”