Cirque du Solei acrobat dies during a performance in Florida
Cirque du Soleil reported the news to the world that its long-time aerialist, French Yann Arnaud, had fallen onto the stage while performing the aerials strap number, as part of the show VOLTA, in Tampa, Florida. The company acknowledged that even if emergency procedures were activated quickly, the acrobat died due to the injuries.
An acrobat died Saturday night when he fell from six meters high while performing at a Cirque du Soleil show in the city of Tampa (west coast of Florida). The skilled French gymnast Yann Arnaud, 38 years old and with 15 years of experience in the famous circus group, slipped from a strap in full air maneuver and crashed without control against the ground. He was rushed to the hospital, but died of his injuries. Arnaud, one of the main stars of the circus, was executing a complex acrobatics coordinated with another partner.
After his fall, he was attended immediately and the show was suspended. The acrobat died hours later, Sunday morning, at Tampa General Hospital. Arnaud, passionate about his profession as his messages show on social networks, lived in Miami, was married and had a daughter. The police have opened an investigation. A few hours before his accident, Arnaud published a message on Instagram that conveyed his excitement about going to run in Tampa the straps duo act "after so much work and training and staging, our straps duo act is finally in the show tonight. It’s time to go for it.”
"The whole family of Cirque du Soleil is shocked and devastated by this tragedy, Yann has been with us for more than 15 years and everyone who had the opportunity to meet him loved him," Daniel Lamarre, president of the company based in Montreal, said. "We are offering our full collaboration transparently to the authorities in their investigation of the circumstances of this accident." After the fall of the acrobat, there was a feeling among the audience that something serious had happened. "It was horrible," viewer Julián Martínez told NBC and replicated in El País. "You could hear the cries between the people and the children were very scared." Cirque du Soleil, founded in Quebec in 1984, has suspended two other shows that were scheduled in Tampa. "In the days and weeks to come we will concentrate our energy on supporting Yann's family and all our employees, particularly the Volta team [the specific show in which the artist participated]." It is not the first time that Cirque du Soleil regrets the death of an acrobat in full representation. In June 2013, French acrobat Sarah Guillot-Guyard died after a crash at the MGM Grand casino in Las Vegas. She was 31 years old, the mother of two children and had been in the circus for seven years. In 2009, a Ukrainian acrobat, Olexandre Jurov, 24, died during a rehearsal in Montreal.
