Isaac Brekken for The New York Times
Between the Wynn’s “Le Rêve,” above, and the Bellagio’s “O,” more than 30 elite synchronized swimmers perform increasingly acrobatic routines. More Photos »
By KIM PALCHIKOFF
Published: November 28, 2010
Multimedia
For an impressive, if oxygen-aided, three minutes, the audience mostly sees 28 dancing legs above the surface of the water, showing off a distinctively choreographed aquatic version of the tango. The swimmers’ arms, meanwhile, are furiously churning.
All together, more than 30 performers who have competed at the world-class level in synchronized swimming now appear in “Le Rêve” at the Wynn and in “O,” a Cirque du Soleil production at the Bellagio Resort and Casino. They are the most elaborate professional water shows in the United States, with a top ticket costing about $200.
The deepening marriage of athleticism and artistry is changing synchronized swimming, an obscure Olympic sport that was memorably satirized in a 1984 “Saturday Night Live” sketch. “Le Rêve” and USA Synchro, the sport’s national governing body, have a sponsorship agreement “to combine resources,” said Sandra Mahoney, the national team director. The show, which opened in 2005, will support USA Synchro financially, as well as assist with choreography and acrobatic training for the athletes.
“They, in turn, will be able to build our talent for the Olympics so that they have talent down the line,” Mahoney said.
Perrin-Stsepaniuk, 26, retired from competitive synchronized swimming for France six years ago to turn pro and join “Le Rêve,” which means “The Dream.” Her husband, Raman Stsepaniuk, 32, is a former member of Belorussia’s national acrobatic team and now is an aerialist in the same show. He performs at heights of more than 65 feet; she performs in a pool full of former Olympians and the 16 scuba divers who provide them with oxygen.
So many former elite athletes work in shows here that some jokingly refer to Las Vegas Boulevard as the Vegas Olympic Village. Many come to work for Cirque du Soleil, which produces seven shows on the Strip and employs 451 performers.
“Synchronized swimming doesn’t have a professional league,” Mahoney said.
“They found a really successful niche in Las Vegas; it’s a great thing,” she added, echoing other synchronized swimming coaches.
Making the transition to entertainment is not always easy for the athletes.
When “O” opened in 1998, said Pavel Brun, the show’s original artistic director, “it took a lot of time and effort for many of them to understand that they were no longer in sports; they were in the theater.”
“Sometimes it was very hard for former Olympians to ‘step down’ to showbiz,” he said by phone from Moscow. “The biggest challenge was for them to realize that it’s not a step down at all, but a step into a completely different reality, where their athletic skills aren’t everything.”
At the Bellagio, the job of transforming athletes is left to Maurizia Cecconi, a two-time Olympian for Italy and, until recently, a swimmer in “Le Rêve.”
“In competitive synchronized swimming, it’s about face and arms,” she said. “As a performer, it’s more about feet. We tell them to imagine that at the end of their feet sticking out of the water is a telescope, and then tell them to make their feet act like they are surprised to be there, little by little, and finally, happy to see each other. We ask them to express happiness and sadness with their feet.”
But the breathtaking display that may look easy to audiences is exhausting.
“In addition to onstage rehearsals, we have personal trainers for overall physical preparation,” said Dacha Nedorezova, a former European champion from Russia who choreographed the tango. “We also offer dance, acrobatic training, aerial and acting.”
Professional scouts searching for that rare combination of athletic skill and artistic aptitude handpick the performers.
When Perrin-Stsepaniuk tried out for “Le Rêve,” she went through intensive water and land-based exercises that included learning dance choreography and demonstrating acting ability and other creative elements. In addition to her two nightly performances, she trains about two hours a day, often between shows.
In the “O” show, traditional circus acts like trapeze, contortion, high bar and even high diving are combined with the synchronized swimmers, whose costumes include masks with three-foot-long hair.
“There is something very enticing, sensual, athletic and beautiful about movement in the water,” said Chris Carver, a four-time United States Olympic synchronized swimming coach whose coaching career began in 1960. A big fan of both shows, she said she traveled to Las Vegas to watch seven of her former competitive swimmers perform.
Many credit the Las Vegas shows for influencing the new direction of the sport to include more daring acrobatic moves. Using jumps, double back flips and handstands, choreographers are spicing up their swimmers’ routines with moves that have more than one coach worrying about injuries.
“Everyone wants to increase the difficulty of their routine and the ‘wow’ factor,” Mahoney said. “The more acrobatics you do, the more difficulty points you get. Now it’s not a question of how risky is the move, but how many people can you lift, or does it spin up or down?”
Competitors have welcomed the change, Carver said.
“Synchronized swimming was becoming too ‘drill team,’ ” she said. “Swimmers wanted something different.”
Carver cautioned that falling on water is like landing on concrete. “We need to regulate and ensure the safety of the athletes, a critical factor in our sport,” she said, “and we need to be free from the rise of concussions and impact-type injuries.”
When Tammy McGregor coached the 2008 Olympic synchronized swimming team, she took her athletes to the Circus Center San Francisco to learn to integrate more acrobatics into their routines.
Young girls, she said, “like the risk factor and basically want to do tricks in the water.” Unlike Mahoney, she said she thought these changes were less about the newer Vegas shows and more about an evolution of the sport.
“It’s been coming since before the shows,” McGregor said. “The Russians have been really advancing the role of acrobatics in synchro. They have a swimmer who can jump 15 feet in the air.”
“It’s a contact sport now,” she added. “So they can’t ridicule us anymore.”
All together, more than 30 performers who have competed at the world-class level in synchronized swimming now appear in “Le Rêve” at the Wynn and in “O,” a Cirque du Soleil production at the Bellagio Resort and Casino. They are the most elaborate professional water shows in the United States, with a top ticket costing about $200.
The deepening marriage of athleticism and artistry is changing synchronized swimming, an obscure Olympic sport that was memorably satirized in a 1984 “Saturday Night Live” sketch. “Le Rêve” and USA Synchro, the sport’s national governing body, have a sponsorship agreement “to combine resources,” said Sandra Mahoney, the national team director. The show, which opened in 2005, will support USA Synchro financially, as well as assist with choreography and acrobatic training for the athletes.
“They, in turn, will be able to build our talent for the Olympics so that they have talent down the line,” Mahoney said.
Perrin-Stsepaniuk, 26, retired from competitive synchronized swimming for France six years ago to turn pro and join “Le Rêve,” which means “The Dream.” Her husband, Raman Stsepaniuk, 32, is a former member of Belorussia’s national acrobatic team and now is an aerialist in the same show. He performs at heights of more than 65 feet; she performs in a pool full of former Olympians and the 16 scuba divers who provide them with oxygen.
So many former elite athletes work in shows here that some jokingly refer to Las Vegas Boulevard as the Vegas Olympic Village. Many come to work for Cirque du Soleil, which produces seven shows on the Strip and employs 451 performers.
“Synchronized swimming doesn’t have a professional league,” Mahoney said.
“They found a really successful niche in Las Vegas; it’s a great thing,” she added, echoing other synchronized swimming coaches.
Making the transition to entertainment is not always easy for the athletes.
When “O” opened in 1998, said Pavel Brun, the show’s original artistic director, “it took a lot of time and effort for many of them to understand that they were no longer in sports; they were in the theater.”
“Sometimes it was very hard for former Olympians to ‘step down’ to showbiz,” he said by phone from Moscow. “The biggest challenge was for them to realize that it’s not a step down at all, but a step into a completely different reality, where their athletic skills aren’t everything.”
At the Bellagio, the job of transforming athletes is left to Maurizia Cecconi, a two-time Olympian for Italy and, until recently, a swimmer in “Le Rêve.”
“In competitive synchronized swimming, it’s about face and arms,” she said. “As a performer, it’s more about feet. We tell them to imagine that at the end of their feet sticking out of the water is a telescope, and then tell them to make their feet act like they are surprised to be there, little by little, and finally, happy to see each other. We ask them to express happiness and sadness with their feet.”
But the breathtaking display that may look easy to audiences is exhausting.
“In addition to onstage rehearsals, we have personal trainers for overall physical preparation,” said Dacha Nedorezova, a former European champion from Russia who choreographed the tango. “We also offer dance, acrobatic training, aerial and acting.”
Professional scouts searching for that rare combination of athletic skill and artistic aptitude handpick the performers.
When Perrin-Stsepaniuk tried out for “Le Rêve,” she went through intensive water and land-based exercises that included learning dance choreography and demonstrating acting ability and other creative elements. In addition to her two nightly performances, she trains about two hours a day, often between shows.
In the “O” show, traditional circus acts like trapeze, contortion, high bar and even high diving are combined with the synchronized swimmers, whose costumes include masks with three-foot-long hair.
“There is something very enticing, sensual, athletic and beautiful about movement in the water,” said Chris Carver, a four-time United States Olympic synchronized swimming coach whose coaching career began in 1960. A big fan of both shows, she said she traveled to Las Vegas to watch seven of her former competitive swimmers perform.
Many credit the Las Vegas shows for influencing the new direction of the sport to include more daring acrobatic moves. Using jumps, double back flips and handstands, choreographers are spicing up their swimmers’ routines with moves that have more than one coach worrying about injuries.
“Everyone wants to increase the difficulty of their routine and the ‘wow’ factor,” Mahoney said. “The more acrobatics you do, the more difficulty points you get. Now it’s not a question of how risky is the move, but how many people can you lift, or does it spin up or down?”
Competitors have welcomed the change, Carver said.
“Synchronized swimming was becoming too ‘drill team,’ ” she said. “Swimmers wanted something different.”
Carver cautioned that falling on water is like landing on concrete. “We need to regulate and ensure the safety of the athletes, a critical factor in our sport,” she said, “and we need to be free from the rise of concussions and impact-type injuries.”
When Tammy McGregor coached the 2008 Olympic synchronized swimming team, she took her athletes to the Circus Center San Francisco to learn to integrate more acrobatics into their routines.
Young girls, she said, “like the risk factor and basically want to do tricks in the water.” Unlike Mahoney, she said she thought these changes were less about the newer Vegas shows and more about an evolution of the sport.
“It’s been coming since before the shows,” McGregor said. “The Russians have been really advancing the role of acrobatics in synchro. They have a swimmer who can jump 15 feet in the air.”
“It’s a contact sport now,” she added. “So they can’t ridicule us anymore.”
