2. Sarah Guyard Guillot: June 29th, 2013
The Cirque Du Soleil, a modern Canadian Circus act, has made a reputation for making audiences believe that the impossible was possible. One of the troupe’s masterpieces is a show called Kà, which had been performed at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas for eight consecutive years before this fateful day. With a budget of $165 Million, this show was easily the most expensive live show ever created.
In the show’s climactic finale, a battle rages between the Forest People (representing good) and the Spearmen (representing evil). The performers enact this scene by leaping, twisting, flipping, and flying through the air held only by a rope and harness. The fight ends when the Forest People, at the bottom of the stage, throw the Spearmen, at the top of the stage, off the battlefield. As one, the Spearmen, fall upward. To the audience it appears as if the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon had come to life before their eyes. This act is performed live twice a day, five times a week. One of the Spearmen, portrayed by 31 year old acrobat Sarah Guyard Guillot, fell to the ground, plummeting 90 feet when her safety rope was severed. She landed face first. The audience initially thought this was part of the act, but a few in the front rows heard her agonizing groans before she died. She left behind her husband and two children.
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