Cirque du Soleil performer dies after falling during performance
Las Vegas audience stunned as French artist plunges 15 metres into stage pit, in famous troupe's first death during a performance
At first, Heather Bell thought the falling woman was part of the show. She turned to her sister Madelyn and said "whoa".
Cirque du Soleil's performance of Ka - an elaborate acrobatic production featuring the company's trademark, daring aerial work - had reached its climactic battle scene on Saturday night when something went horribly wrong.
Sarah Guyard-Guillot, 31, a seven-year Cirque veteran known as Sassoon, had been dangling near a catwalk hidden far above the stage at the MGM Grand when the Bell sisters saw her go into a 15-metre free fall and tumble out of sight, into the stage's pit.
"It was just an instant," said Madelyn Bell, 17, of Pensacola, Florida. "She just fell. She hit the ground, and you could hear the scream."
Within an hour, Guyard-Guillot was dead. The audience that had expected to see one of Cirque du Soleil's world-famous death-defying productions had instead witnessed a performance death, thought to be the first during a show in Cirque du Soleil's 29-year history.
"It didn't look like she was trying to grab on the wall or anybody else as she fell," said Bryce Johnson, 27, of Las Vegas.