Cirque Du Soleil's 'Kurios' Uses Safety Net In A Curious Way

DENVER (CBS4) - It's a standard piece of circus equipment, but put to a completely different use in Kurios.

Instead of simply catching people, a 30 ft by 40 ft steel safety net is now flinging performers 50 feet in the air, in a spectacular display of coordination, daring, and acrobatics.

"This is the acro-net, an apparatus that was built and created just for this show. I've never seen that before, they just took a trapeze net, modified it, put a lot of tension on it, we can fly," explained performer Karl L'Ecuyer.

Not only can they fly, but the net is stretched out over the audience making you a part of the action.

"There's a lot of 'ugh' so you don't hear a lot of noise on the first bounce because you just cannot believe it, because everybody has seen a trapeze, everybody has seen a net, but normally when you hit the net everything stops. Us, when we hit the net, we start flying," said L'Ecuyer.

One thing to watch carefully is the synchronization of the performers. For the guy in the air, the guys in the net have to have perfect timing.

"Yeah it's teamwork, if one guy is not in sync with the other one, then that is not balanced and we start traveling sideways. And if there is any problem with teamwork we just call it and stop the bounce. So we can go up from 45 feet to three feet in one call," L'Ecuyer said.

You find in the end that you're trusting these guys as well, to help get your heart back down out of your throat.

Acro-Net, part of the excitement of Kurios of Cirque du Soleil opens June 11 under the big top in the parking lot of the Pepsi Center. For tickets and details visit cirquedusoleil.com.