Cirque du Soleil director dismisses celebs and declares only Olympic winners can join show

express.co.uk:

Strictly Come Dancing and Dancing On Ice, Dawn Wilson explains that most of the 46 performers she manages have been training for their roles for "decades" - and that the average celebrity just couldn't cut it.She has promised nothing but "the highest level of acrobatics" for the show, which runs in London until February 27th.Creative director Dawn says: "I've worked on 12 Cirque du Soleil shows and every one that is created is a bit more advanced than the last - not just in special effects but in original creativity as well."We're basically upping our game every time."The acrobatic feats are phenomenal, with performers dropping from parachutes, balancing their entire body weight on just a single hand while propelled 20 feet above the stage, and performing hoop diving techniques on treadmills that are each 4000lb in weight.In one scene that might be overwhelmingly daunting to the average performer, acrobats leap from one moving swing to another, which is positioned several feet away from it, via multiple backflips through the air in the spaces in between.There are also incredible scenes where a woman is flung into the air and then turned into a "human skipping rope"."If you come to the Cirque du Soleil show, you expect the highest level of acrobatics and I think you can see that on stage comparable to anybody else," Dawn stated.When asked whether it can potentially take decades for would-be circus stars to perfect their skills to the standard of Cirque du Soleil, Dawn had no hesitation in answering: "Absolutely, yes - without a doubt!"I wouldn't say celebrities can come and be part of our shows."Some of [our performers] have been doing it since childhood, but definitely since [either] childhood or teenage years, they've.