Former Gymnast Includes Her Kids in Her Gravity-Defying Stunts

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Being a mother means having to juggle caring for your child, exercise, and other daily activities. This talented mother is showing on social media how she can accomplish gymnastic feats with her young children.

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Gasya Akhmetova-Atherton is a former Cirque du Soleil star from New York. On her Instagram page, she can be seen balancing her children Kamali, 3, and Kaysen, 1, on her body. She shared the photos for her 27,000 followers to see. The flexible mother-of-two includes her toddlers in her stunts like hand stands and other forms of body contortion.

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Gasya, who is originally from Kazakhstan, is married to Andrew Atherton, a British gymnast. The clip posted by the couple shows the gymnast mother balancing upside down while her child hangs on to her.

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One-year-old Kaysen also features in some photos. His mother says it won’t be long before he also gets in on the family contortion act. She says, “I have many years experience of sports acrobatics, so for me to do this trick now is very easy.”

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Her children are amazing and are already showing signs of wanting to follow their acrobatic parents. Kamali loves to dance and joins Gasya when she is training. She insists she is “not a pushy mum” and they “try to make everything we do together fun.”

At aged 17, she joined the famous Cirque du Soleil and continued to perform until the birth of her second child.

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She explains, “I was a natural build for the sport and excelled. I trained and competed internationally for my country—the highlight of my career was being number one in my country. I was offered a contract to perform on a touring show with Cirque du Soleil’s Varekai. I loved it so much and did five years in total. Varekai holds a special place in my heart as it is also where I met my husband.”

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In 2010, Gasya left Varekai and joined IRIS,which is a resident show at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. Gasya said of her job, “My main discipline here was The Bungee Act, where I got to leap, somersault, and fly 45 ft in the air, above the audiences’ heads every night. It was amazing. I also got to perform my hand-balancing in the 84th Academy Awards.”

Currently, Gasya is taking a break from work so she can focus on raising her children.

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