Cirque is a place where your individuality, art, and passion are always supported. We strive to help one another become better at our craft every day. We also find that being a part of the LGBTQIA+ community is truly embraced and celebrated.
We are Chelley and Dani.
We work at two different resident shows in Las Vegas; Chelley is an acrobat for KÀ at MGM and Dani is a rigger and a scuba diver for O at the Bellagio. We have three beautiful dogs and have enjoyed many adventures taking them with us to the mountains, to the beach and skating around the neighborhood. On our time off, we love to rock climb, hike, camp, eat lots of food, and play both board and video games (we're just big kids, after all).
Chelley has been a gymnast her entire life and grew up at her family-owned gymnastics facility with her four siblings. Chel and her family moved around quite often as they navigated through trials and tribulations. She always found a home in every city: training at a gymnastics club.
Gymnastics is what ultimately led Chel to her current career. At only 18, she landed her first stunt show at Legoland, California. She then travelled to Japan on a 13-month contract, where she took on the role of Helen in the stunt show Waterworld. She learned about the culture and language, tried new foods, watched the cherry blossoms bloom, and climbed Mount Fuji.
Once she came back to the States, she immediately started working at Disneyland, where she took part in the Pixar Parade, flying high on the bar as the float moved through California Adventure.
When Chel turned 21, she was offered her first show in Las Vegas, Le Rêve-The Dream at the Wynn. She performed partner acts, choreography, physical acting, wire work, flights out of the water and into the air, and was one of the first women to perform the solo cage act.
After four wonderful years, she shifted towards something new and mysterious... a magic act!
She performed for three years working with magician Criss Angel in Cirque du Soleil’s Mindfreak Live. She learned to execute magic tricks while incorporating the discipline she trained in. She loved her time there and learned a tremendous amount.
A wonderful opportunity arose once again when she was offered an acrobat position on KÀ. This is her current occupation, where she gets to perform stage fights, falls into air bags, swing up in the air, spin on a hoop, rappel from the ceiling, and interact with the audience as part of the house troupe.
She loves being at KÀ.
Just like her partner, Dani is passionate about everything she does. She sustains many hobbies, loves to learn new things and pushes herself to master each new skill she endeavors to learn. She describes herself as both intellectually and physically driven. Her background in education and athleticism has made her stronger in her current career.
Dani attended Whittier College where she majored in psychology and played for the women’s soccer team. She learned to balance the two, training many hours all while staying focused on her studies. She even made sure to bring her beloved dog Vixey on campus with her, whom she fed pizza crusts and peanut butter to while studying.
Her upbringing was underpinned by her dedication and strong work ethic. Although she is a very versatile athlete, soccer was her main focus at the time. She joined her first team at age five and played competitively throughout high school, club, and college. Her passion led her to seize a unique opportunity to travel overseas, train in the Philippines and play with their national women's team.
After graduation, she knew she wasn't done with sports and was ready to try something new. She discovered and, of course, fell in love with sport climbing and bouldering. She travelled a lot to different states and countries to climb and made a lot of friends who encouraged her in her training. However, she deeply missed the team spirit and camaraderie that came with playing soccer. She was determined to find something where she could use her skills as an athlete while developing new ones. That's how she discovered rugby, immediately loved learning about the sport, and set out to reach her new goals.
She was invited to a handful of Olympic rugby training camps, including Next Olympic Hopeful at the Colorado Springs Olympic Training Center and incubator camps at Chula Vista Olympic Training Center, where she trained as a hopeful for the 2020 Olympics. During her training, she continued to enjoy rock climbing and hiking with her pup, and even met her wife-to-be, Chelley. Shortly after, she was offered the chance to work as a rigger with Cirque. Without hesitation, she took the opportunity of a lifetime to work for the famous company.
Dani loves rigging and scuba diving. She leverages every experience and puts everything into her work every day. Her sharp mind helps her make sure every artist and apparatus are safely set before going on stage from high in the grid and down underwater. She uses her strong physique to help send swinging trapeze artist flying in the air and quick thinking to adjust to the correct timing.
She loves what she does and is always willing to add another feather to her cap.
We are happy to be walking, together, down the same career path working for Cirque. We have the privilege to do what we love, support each other, and honor our successes. We made a habit out of calling each other before our first show of the night to wish each other a good show and then talk about our days at the end of the night. We also like to train in our backyard, learning new tricks just for fun!
We came to realize that Cirque isn’t just a job: it’s also a lifestyle. It's given us both the opportunity to fully dive into our uniqueness, explore our creativity and accept ourselves and each other to the fullest.