When competitive gymnasts find themselves at the end of their collegiate careers, it’s often the end of the road.
Seldom is there an outlet to continue to display the skills they spent their entire life refining, and continuing their passion becomes a fantasy.
Former LSU gymnast Kelly Phelan is living that dream.
Phelan currently performs as an acrobat and a dancer in the Wynn Las Vegas production “Le Rêve,” French for “The Dream,” utilizing the skills and mindset she developed while competing at the University.
“A lot of the stuff is similar to gymnastics, but it has its own technique,” Phelan said. “It’s a very unique challenge.”
The show takes place in an intimate arena-style theater above a tank containing 1.1 million gallons of filtered water and features aerial acrobatics, choreographed dance routines and avant-garde special effects. It was created by Franco Dragone, the former creative director of Cirque du Soleil.
Phelan participates in several perilous segments, including one where she plunges into the tank from a 55-foot high-dive, and the Triton, a trapeze-style apparatus where the acrobat is kicked off 32 feet in the air by another performer.
Casting director Louanne Madorma said the Triton spot is highly sought after by the actors despite its dangerous nature. It’s reserved only for acrobats who have been “exceptionally trained.”
Phelan also performs in dance numbers, highlighted by the “Red Men” solo, in which she has a minute and a half to perform alone while encircled by her male castmates.
“The feel is aggressive,” Phelan said. “You’re supposed to be a man in woman form. It’s very fierce.”
The solo’s mood suits Phelan’s personality. LSU coach D-D Breaux, known for her own aggressive coaching style, said she enjoyed the intensity and enthusiasm Phelan brought to the gym, despite struggles early in her career.
“She was challenging, but she got better,” Breaux said. “She worked hard in our system and really thrived.”
Breaux said Phelan had a problem with focus when she first got to LSU. Phelan said she didn’t manage her time well and slept through classes, and her grades suffered.
On top of academic problems, a doctor told Phelan, an all-arounder, that she would only ever compete on the uneven bars again due to a back injury.
Her disagreement with the diagnosis, and an appeal from Breaux, transformed her attitude to the one her mentor now praises.
“D-D told me she was very disappointed [in my grades], so that kind of made me jump-start and get back into the swing of things,” Phelan said.
Two months of relentless physical therapy and copious hours of studying primed her for a career in which she earned two All-American and two Academic All-American titles.
“LSU created that competitive edge in me,” Phelan said.
She worked in marketing at Walk-On’s in Baton Rouge for a period after graduating in 2007 before moving back home to Florida. She worked at Disneyworld, impersonating Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty and performing in acrobatic parades.
“It was fun, but it wasn’t physically demanding,” Phelan said.
It wasn’t until Madorma contacted Breaux, whom she had met at gymnastics meets prior, about upcoming auditions for “Le Rêve” that Phelan got to satisfy her aggressive tendencies.
“When you see Kelly for the first time, you know immediately she’s right for this kind of show,” Madorma said. “She’s a really talented gymnast obviously, but she has a glowing personality, and she moves really well, so she has a great performance value.”
She would need both her gymnastics prowess and her indomitable will to get through the grueling nine-hour audition and subsequent three-day work shop in Las Vegas.
Phelan recalled picking herself up repeatedly after falling when others were giving up. Madorma noticed that Phelan was battered and bruised but kept bouncing back.
“They told me, ‘We saw you falling and you kept getting up, and that’s why we picked you’,” Phelan said. “That was kind of cool, because I know that’s what you also need for gymnastics.”
Phelan debuted in “Le Rêve” in August 2010 and hasn’t forgotten who bred that mindset or where she developed the talents that allowed her to live a dream.
She calls Breaux a second mom. Her former coach said she got the “this is my momma” treatment when she recently went to see Phelan perform during a recruiting trip to Las Vegas.
“She’s gone from someone that we’ve recruited, to someone we’ve coached, to someone we feel like is a friend,” Breaux said.
Phelan still feels close to not only Breaux, but also to the LSU community as a whole, and said she becomes fast friends with anyone associated with the university.
“LSU is my life,” Phelan said. “It’s more than the four years.”
 
 
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Contact Alex Cassara at [email protected]