PROJECT PARTNERS
Cirque du Soleil
FUNDING
None
BACKGROUND
Cirque du Soleil is a major circus company that was founded by a group of street performers in Baie-Saint-Paul, Canada, in 1984. From its humble beginnings, it has grown into a major entertainment attraction and now employs over 1300 artists from 55 different countries performing in 27 various shows (Soleil, 2019). Some shows are stationary and perform in the same city throughout the year while others go on travel legs and perform all over the world. A travel leg typically consists of 10 straight show weeks of performances in different cities with a two-to-three week break before the next travel leg starts. A show week runs from Monday through Sunday, where the performances are condensed into 4 days from Thursday through Sunday. Each show features from 50 to 100 artists in different positions or acts, so it is important for all of them to remain healthy and available to perform their part of the show.
OBJECTIVES
Cirque du Soleil wants to improve their load management monitoring and injury risk management. Finding the right balance between the business needs of a circus and the health aspects of the performing artists crew leads to the following research questions:
(1) Can we relate the injury incidence to the show week within a travel leg;
(2) Is there a relationship between the injury incidence rate and the average work load by position; and
(3) Can the ACWR be used to assess the probability of injury?