Performer falls during Cirque du Soleil show, stretchered off stage and taken to hospital

Brian from Mount Roskill

One of the performers at Cirque du Soleil’s Auckland show today suffered a fall and had to be stretchered off and taken to hospital.
The show at Spark Arena was stopped for around half an hour while medical staff attended to the injured performer, a member of the crowd told the Herald.
The crowd member said that screens covered the stage while the performer was receiving treatment.
Cirque du Soleil said the man suffered a “rough landing” but was fully conscious and taken to hospital for further checks.
“On Saturday, November 8th, 2025, during the 12h00 performance of Cirque du Soleil’s Corteo in Auckland, an artist who is part of the final act Tournik act had a rough landing in the safety mattress during the completion of a group acrobatic skill.” the company said.
“As a precautionary measure and in accordance with our emergency response protocols, we stopped the show to allow the emergency intervention team of Corteo to safely bring the artist backstage, where he was immediately taken in good care by our performance medicine team.
“He was fully conscious and was transported to the hospital for further examination. The show resumed about 25 minutes after the incident.”
Cirque du Soleil said the man’s condition would be monitored to determine when he could safely return to his activities.
“Corteo will continue performing as planned through Sunday, November 9th at Spark Arena.”
The audience member said initially they thought the medical staff could have been part of the show, but they “pretty quickly got the feeling it wasn’t.”
It was hard to tell what happened as there were a lot of performers on stage, but it looked like the man fell awkwardly, they said.
He initially got up but soon collapsed.
Another audience member told the Herald that once the injured performer was taken off, the stage was reset and the show went straight to the finale with performers coming on and bowing.
Others they had spoken with said the incident happened near the end of the show, which would only have a couple of minutes left to run anyway.
Hato Hone St John said it was notified of the incident at 2.11pm.
“Our crews assessed and treated one patient who was transported to Auckland City Hospital in a moderate condition.”
Today’s remaining scheduled Cirque du Soleil shows at Spark Arena for today are at 4pm and 8pm.
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