A Cirque du Soleil performer remained hospitalized Sunday after a fall during a show Friday night at the Aria resort on the Las Vegas Strip.
The performance troupe issued a statement Saturday saying the male artist, who wasn’t identified, was appearing in the “Wheel of Death” act during an evening performance of “Zarkana” when he slipped and fell.
He’s the second performer to fall during a Cirque du Soleil show in the past five months. The previous fall at the show “Ka” at the MGM Grand led to a female performer’s death.
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“During the 7 p.m. showing of ‘Zarkana’ last night, an artist performing in the ‘Wheel of Death’ act slipped and fell off the wheel,” Cirque du Soleil said in a statement after the accident. “The show was halted and the artist was transported to University Medical Center where he is in stable condition and is expected to be released from hospital in the next few days.”
The act features two performers who do high-risk feats inside a pair of spinning wheels rotating high above the stage.
The accident occurred four months after a Cirque du Soleil acrobat died in a fall during a performance of the show “Ka” at the MGM Grand. Sarah Guillot-Guyard, 31, died after she fell 94 feet during the final battle scene in Cirque du Soleil’s “Ka” on June 29.
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The company was cited several times by the Nevada Occupational Safety and Health Administration after the accident, according to the Las Vegas Review Journal, and faces more than $25,000 in fines. MGM is facing a $7,000 fine.
According to OSHA, Cirque du Soleil was cited for not protecting “Ka” performers from striking an overhead grid during the show and for not providing proper training for the “employee involved in the accident.”