Cirque du Soleil performer Sarah Guyard-Guillot dies from fall during Las Vegas Kà show

Sarah Guyard-Guillot, an acrobatic performer in the Cirque du Soleil show Kà, died Saturday night after falling during a performance at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. According to audience members in attendance, the incident occurred during the final battle scene when Guyard-Guillot was ascending the vertical wall that served as the battleground when she somehow came free from her safety wire and fell more than 50 feet into an unseen pit below the performers.

Guyard-Guillot 31, was pronounced dead at 11:43PM Saturday at University Medical Center. She is survived by two children ages 8 and 5.

^ Photo of Sarah performing from Facebook

Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte issued this statement earlier today:

The entire Cirque du Soleil family is deeply saddened by the accidental death of Sarah (Sassoon) Guyard, artist on the production ‘Ka,’ that happened on Saturday, June 29, in Las Vegas. The artist’s immediate family has been informed of the accident. Our thoughts are with her family and the entire Cirque du Soleil family.

I am heartbroken. I wish to extend my sincerest sympathies to the family. We are all completely devastated with this news. Sassoon was an artist with the original cast of  ‘Ka’ since 2006 and has been an integral part of our Cirque du Soleil tight family. We are reminded, with great humility and respect, how extraordinary our artists are each and every night. Our focus now is to support each other as a family.

We have been working with the appropriate authorities and have offered our full cooperation. Performances of ‘Ka’ will be canceled until further notice.

MGM Resorts International issued this statement:

Our company is deeply saddened by the loss of one of the talented KA artists Saturday night. The thoughts and prayers of our employees are with the performer’s family, the cast of KA, and the entire Cirque family during this difficult time.

The Las Vegas Sun has a harrowing description of what transpired after the fall:

The show momentarily continued, but then the music halted, and the performer’s screams and groans could be heard from below the stage. One source close to the production said she died on the way to a hospital.

“(The artist) was being hoisted up the side of the stage and then just plummeted down,” said Dan Mosqueda, visiting with his wife and 10-year-old son from Colorado Springs, Colo. “Initially, a lot of people in the audience thought it was part of the choreographed fight. But you could hear screaming, then groaning, and we could hear a female artist crying from the stage.” Mosqueda’s wife, Annie, has a background in theater and tweeted about the incident soon after it occurred.

Minutes after the artist’s fall, a recorded announcement was played on the theater’s sound system informing ticket-buyers that refunds or vouchers to future shows would be offered to those in the audience, and the crowd was dismissed.

Sarah Guyard-Guillot was born in Paris and had been performing acrobatics for 22 years. She is a graduate of Annie Fratellini Art & Circus Academy where she specialized as an acrobat and aerialist. She was a coach / instructor at Cirque Fit (the photo above is from Cirquefit where she was demonstrating juggling and tightrope walking) and was a member of the Kà cast since 2006.

Here are a couple videos of Sarah with her Kà cast mate Zula Ulambayar performing as aerialists at the 3rd annual Cirque Cabaret held at the New York New York Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas in 2009. (According to a commenter, Sarah is the performer wearing black shorts with a black top.)