A Cirque du Soleil aerialist who broke 11 bones falling before a live audience at the Portland Expo Center in 2024 has filed a $16.75 million lawsuit against the company, alleging it ignored repeated warnings about faulty equipment and later fired her over concerns about her mental fitness to return to work. Mariia Konfektova, a Russian performer in her 20s, suffered fractures to at least seven facial bones, a fractured wrist, fractures to her lower back, a concussion and double vision when she slipped from a hoop circling the arena floor during a 7 p.m. performance of “Kooza” on August 24, 2024.
Konfektova fell about 30 minutes into the show and landed face down on the ground after slipping roughly 15 feet, according to the lawsuit reported by The Oregonian/OregonLive. She filed the suit in Multnomah County Circuit Court on Wednesday, naming both Cirque du Soleil and its related American touring company as defendants. Oregon OSHA had already opened its own inquiry into the fall, and a state inspection report obtained by the Portland Tribune found that Konfektova fell while transitioning between hoop movements, touching but not gripping the apparatus, which caused her right foot to slip before she hit the Teraflex-covered stage floor, an impact-reducing surface material.
A Hoop Reassembled Slightly Off-Kilter
The Tribune’s report also noted that before the accident, head coach Cherie Walker had flagged during rehearsals that re-assembling the touring rig in Portland created a barely perceptible one-centimeter difference in the hoop’s alignment, subtly altering Konfektova’s spin. Konfektova’s lawsuit goes further, claiming Cirque du Soleil supplied her a hoop several pounds lighter than requested and that the aerial-hoop winch was positioned two feet off center. The lawsuit also states that Oregon’s workplace safety division had urged Cirque du Soleil, as far back as 2022, to add fall-protection measures such as mats around performance areas, and that no mats were placed beneath her the night she fell.
Oregon OSHA ultimately fined Cirque du Soleil about $8,000 and found the company did not effectively investigate performers’ accidents, per the agency. The state agency also issued a separate citation over the makeup of the company’s employee safety board, finding that all eight members at the time of the fall had been appointed by management rather than elected by workers, a violation of Oregon law requiring joint management-worker representation on such committees, according to Oregon Business. To resolve that citation while it appealed the underlying penalty, Cirque du Soleil pulled Konfektova’s hoop act from the Kooza schedule for the remainder of its Portland run. As of Thursday, at least one of the company’s OSHA appeals remained pending, per an OSHA spokesperson.
From World Record to Firing, Lawsuit Alleges
Konfektova, who trained as a gymnast before becoming an aerial artist, set the Guinness World Record for most seated aerial hoop rotations in 30 seconds in 2021, completing 75 spins in Zhuhai, China, after developing new techniques during pandemic-era circus closures. Her lawsuit states she recovered from her Portland injuries and performed again, but alleges she continued raising safety concerns about the equipment afterward. According to the suit, Cirque du Soleil eventually expressed concerns about her mental fitness for returning to work and fired her; the company had previously said, at the time of the fall, that Konfektova was recovering and being cared for by its medical and coaching team…