Circus performer plummets face-first from 20 feet as acrobatic trick goes wrong

10 April 2024 , 15:10

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Circus performer plummets face-first from 20 feet as acrobatic trick goes wrong

Video footage captured by a horrified audience member shows the sickening moment a circus performer falls face first to the stage during an aerial act.

The performer is seen twirling through the air on an aerial hoop during the show roughly 20 feet above the ground. She can be seen spinning and performing acrobatics above the crowd during the circus performance on April 7.

But during a split-second shift of balance during her act she appears to miss her grip and is sent plummeting to the wooden platform below with a sickening thump. The heartstopping moment was captured by a member of the crowd at the O Circo Aquatico in Joinville, in the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina on Sunday.

She appears to miss her grip and is sent plummeting to the wooden platform below (Newsflash)

The trapeze artist, who has not been named, bounces once as she hits the hard wooden platform surrounding the circus ring before disappearing out of sight, to gasps and yells of dismay from the crowd.

The circus performer, who has not been named, was rushed to hospital, with local media reporting that she is stable and conscious and is now recovering. She reportedly suffered an arm injury.

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The circus said in a statement: "We have professional firefighters in all presentations for short-term cases like this. We emphasise that all the protocols that the competent bodies oblige us to carry out were carried out at the time and also afterwards and that there was no risk to the public or other members of our team."

The performer bounces once as she hits the hard wooden platform surrounding the circus ring (Newsflash)

Aerial hoop, also known as lyra, aerial ring and circeau, is a steel or aluminium tube formed into a ring shape. They are suspended using a strap designed to withstand the high-force impacts generated by moving in the hoop and may use a pulley system to change the hoop’s height during the performance.

The use of the aerial hoop in circus performances dates back at least as far as 1893 when the theatrical journal the New York Clipper featured an image of one in use. The use of aerial hoop in circus shows experienced a renaissance in the early 2000s with Cirque du Soleil’s wildly successful show Verakai.

Joseph Golder