We put your question to Cirque spokeswoman Merri Hagan, who says that the artist in question is doing fine: "He's been recovering well," walking with a limp but otherwise in good shape.
She also couldn't comment on the number of accidents in Vegas shows per se but said of her own company, "accidents happen rarely. Safety is of the utmost importance to Cirque du Soleil. We invest a lot of time and effort" in keeping cast and crew safe.
But are spectators at risk, too? "I don’t believe our audience members are placed in risky scenarios," Hagan responded, explaining that KÀ is the only Cirque show to use post-and-beam rappelling (i.e., the technique that went awry on the night you were there) and that all other audience interaction is done strictly at floor level, "so our audience members typically aren't placed in a risky position."
Cirque does risk assessments of every potential peril in its shows and imposes safety procedures accordingly. In the case of KÀ, which makes extensive use of falls onto (unseen) airbags, all artists and technicians are required to undergo regular airbag training, so that they fall properly. In general, safety protocols include security fencing in the stage area and color-coding of the grid above the stage.
We also asked a few journalists around town for their take on show safety. Steve Friess, who was in the process of writing an in-depth piece on Cirque for Las Vegas Weekly, responded: "When it comes to Cirque, there have been some notable accidents that have made the news and then, as with any production, less significant ones that are part of the risk of doing the job and aren't evident to the audience. Sprains and bruises are standard not just for Cirque but many productions -- I've known cast members in Jersey Boys and Phantom to be out with work-related leg injuries brought on by an unfortunate twist while dancing or running into a misplaced prop."
Cirque even suffered a fatality last year during a rehearsal (not in Las Vegas but at company headquarters in Montreal). Its most notorious Vegas mishap occurred during a mid-November 2007 performance of Zumanity. Two performers fell from an aerial silk, plummeting as many as 35 feet to the stage (eyewitness accounts differed). The Las Vegas Review-Journal's David Kihara reported that "[b]oth hit the stage with a resounding thud and bounced several inches into the air." One of the aerialists escaped with minor injuries but the other, a Bulgarian woman, was placed in a local ICU in critical condition.
Five years earlier, a Bellagio electrician suffered severe skull trauma and lost the use of his legs after being struck by a half-ton O prop. By settling with Cirque in 2005, he missed out on the $42 million in damages the jury in the subsequent lawsuit agreed to award him. It would have been the biggest such verdict rendered in Nevada up to that time.
"The Zumanity example," Friess resumes, "was a particularly interesting one because, unlike most of the other shows, this is not a risk-intensive production. The aerials are minimal. That may, in fact, have contributed to the accident, the fact that the show lacks a culture of safety alertness because most of the performers dance, strip and pose.
""how business is a very physical endeavor," he continues. "Audiences are accustomed to seeing athletes removed from fields of play on stretchers and don't express shock when the show – er, game continues as though nothing had happened. But when a production show in which athletes -- and Cirque performers in particular are athletes -- hurt themselves or their usual precision is off, it tends to disturb the fantasy that they're superhuman and flawless. Somehow it's more traumatizing to see an actor hurt themselves than to see a hockey player lose consciousness in a pool of blood."
Not unlike a sports franchise, Cirque employs in-house "performance medicine." This includes strength-and-conditioning coaching, injury-prevention counseling, Pilates, yoga, massage and physical therapy. "It's something that Cirque is very, very particular about," says Hagan of safety issues.
As to any sort cover-up, even veteran newsmen are skeptical. Says one, "it's impossible to quantify, but seems like less and less of that would slip by, thanks to diligent audiences. Of course the shows aren't going to put out a press release the next day if no one comes and asks them," he continues, noting that Cirque is "usually pretty forthright."
Adds Robert Stoldal, longtime news director of KLAS-TV, now at rival KVBC, "unless the news media knows about it, they can't report it. With cell phones that capture video and stills, and more and more people sharing these images and stories on the Internet, more stories are getting out there. But there is still a lot of 'news' that never gets reported."
So it seems that, had you not e-mailed us about it, the Jan. 28 KÀ accident would have been like the proverbial tree that falls around in the forest when no one is around to hear it.
