Breaking News: Two Injured During Zumanity Show

I have been an aerial student for the last three years and am a bit concerned about the outcry on this incident. Though I have not seen Zumanity, I have seen a few Cirque shows. I have no doubt that the fall was not comfortable to watch. In my experience, while training and practicing, we use mats. If I were to fall from a greater height, the mat would do little to cushion me. My teacher—like many aerial instructors, I’m sure—has many times stressed the importance of regularly checking one’s own rigging, being aware of one’s strength level and listening to one’s body while performing, and various safety maneuvers to prevent such a rare accident. As for safety lines, in the use of aerial silks and ropes, they would actually create a bigger danger as they could entangle the artist during certain moves and drops.

There is also a drastic difference between long-run show performers (such as Cirque) and most of the aerialists in the world—and there are many of them—these performers appear in multiple shows a night throughout the week, wearing their bodies down greatly. They are likely overworked and quite tired for each performance, and in the case for Tuesday night, might have needed a break instead of running through another show. From what I understand, many of the performers in corporate events or smaller groups tend to perform a single show, or, one show a night for a small stretch of time.

Aerial arts do involve a level of risk, but in the large number of participants there aren’t many accidents. There are certainly far fewer than your average football season, where athletes regularly suffer broken bones, internal bruising, and concussions. Interestingly, these accidents happen in front of an even larger audience with very little fuss, and no debates over the logistics of each tackle, move, or play.

What happened is tragic and unfortunate, and I understand the concern from audience members; however, it scares me to think what may become of circus aerial arts if OSHA were to start regulating it.

I am a professional aerialist—I have been performing and teaching for many years now. My students range from people using aerial circus arts as an alternative form of exercise or fun to individuals working to become professionals. The risk becomes greater once an aerialist achieves higher levels of the art. Professional aerialists know the danger they face when taking on this type of career, and the seemingly super-human stunts are part of what attracts the audience to this type of performance.

Lisa from Michigan stated, “There were no invisible ropes, no nets, not even a cushioned mats or padding below to act as a barrier and to prevent this type of accident from occurring. I cannot believe the irresponsibility of Cirque to allow their performers to take these risks.” Those unfamiliar with the art do not realize the nature of the apparatus that was used in this act. For Aerial Tissu (aka Silks/Fabric/Ribbons) and Rope (aka Corde Lisse/Spanish Web), safety lines would not only make the art form impossible to do, but it would pose a greater risk with them than without. One of the risks would be entangling oneself in the lines; another is that there would be additional areas for equipment failure. As for nets, not only would it inhibit the art form, but the tissu or rope would need to be rigged much higher, not to mention that falling into a net safely is a skill in itself and adds an additional danger (but most people not in the circus don’t realize this). The third safety item she mentioned were mats…when falling from 20-30 feet, an 8-inch mat is not going to do much to soften a fall, and the thicker you make the mat the higher you would need to rig the apparatus.

There are many other careers that have serious accidents, injuries, and deaths—including iron workers, elevator mechanics, etc. We don’t hear much about them because they are not performing in front of people. These careers have safety regulations, but accidents do still occur.

What it comes down to is that professional aerialists know the risks and love what they do! In this case, I believe that exhaustion may have been a reason for the “slip” or maybe the routine had some highly precarious elements that may be unnecessary and could be changed while keeping the beauty of the routine. However, I’m completely against OSHA stepping in and regulating Aerial Arts. This would be a disaster, and there would be a surprisingly loud outcry from the circus and dance community.