Sound Slide: High-flying acrobats have travelled the world

The life of a travelling acrobat is a very exciting job to be sure, but to the people involved it seems as normal as riding a bicycle.

Yves Milord has performed as an acrobat for 20 years.

On the trampoline he plays for laughs, seeming to trip and fall his way into a flips, leaps and bounds: one part Three Stooges, one part Super Mario.

“We do shows around the world. There’s lot of comedy and skills, it’s a family show,” he said, adding he also runs an acrobatic entertainment company outside Montreal.

During the Fair weekend, the French Connection Aerial Acrobatics Show, performed without safety nets.

On at least one occasion, they had to stop acrobat Mélanie Royer’s routine because of the wind.

“We know what we’re doing and everything is top quality pulleys and ropes. With the proper training you eliminate 99 per cent of the danger, but of course things can happen,” Milord said.

Caroline Birtz, who is 23, has been performing shows for six years with the company.

She has a background in gymnastics and high diving, but is now learning the trampoline.

“I started gymnastics when I was about five, my mother saw that I was quite the acrobat,” she said.

Royer, who performs on the bungee and silks, was annouced as “the perfect combination of strengh and beauty,” during the show.

She learned her skills performing in a Chinese circus and, like Birtz,  started diving and gymnastics when she was five years old.

Over the years she has performed in small-towns and big cities across Canada, as well as internationally in Bermuda, Oman, Saudi Arabia, China and Japan.