I'm a 60-year-old Cirque du Soleil performer. The circus provides chefs and special schools for our families — it feels like I'm always on vacation.

• Vicente Quirós is a 60-year-old circus performer who started as a high-wire artist in Madrid.
• He's been performing his art for 40 years and joined Cirque du Soleil in 2007.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Vicente Quirós, a 60-year-old circus performer who works with Cirque du Soleil. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I'm a sixth-generation circus performer, meaning that I was born in the circus. My father was a high-wire artist and my mother was a flamenco dancer and singer.

As I grew up, my father saw I had good balance, so my brother and I tried the high-wire. We immediately did it very well. Despite high-wire being the most difficult art in the circus, we chose it to be our art and have been doing it for 40 years now.

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I grew up in my family circus in Madrid, and it was the most beautiful part of my life

At the time, we had animals. I saw one elephant like he was my brother. The spirit within the circus was really nice; I'd play football with the other kids, and I was always surrounded by my family. Everybody took care of each other.

I started performing in my family circus in 1972. In 1978, I went touring around the best cities in Europe, Australia, and the United States.

During this period, I lived in an RV. That's where I'd cook and sleep, and how I'd travel from place to place. It was great because my family would be only 20 seconds away from the circus tent. I'd perform and go back to the trailer with my wife and daughter, eat, then go back to the tent when I heard my queue to perform.

The hardest part of being in these shows was setting them up

Driving all the equipment in with the truck, setting up the high-wire, and ensuring everything is safe could take four to five hours for every show — including travel. At times, I'd hurt myself while setting up. I'd often cut my finger setting up the high-wire, and I'd still have to perform that night.

It's normal for high-wire artists to fall, like a football player breaking their leg or a Formula One driver crashing their car. I'm lucky that I've only ever fallen twice in my whole career, and that both falls were from low heights. I was only out for a couple of weeks.

I won the chance to join Cirque du Soleil in a competition

My brother and I had entered a circus competition in Monte Carlo in front of the Prince of Monaco. We were the first high-wire artists to ever win it, and our prize was to join Cirque du Soleil.

For artists like me, Cirque du Soleil is the best show in the world. Everybody wants to join it. Once I joined it, life on the road only got better.

The safety at Cirque du Soleil is so much better

I no longer have to set up my own high-wire; there are technicians who do that every night. Plus, if I'm feeling ill or injured, I go to the physiotherapist and they'll say I'm not available to work. In Cirque du Soleil, we always have a backup artist to cover us when we're not fit to perform.

This means I can perform for many more years than if I was in another show. During our rehab, the circus will provide us with what we need like a massage or medical attention.

The company also takes care of us

The best example of this is in 2007, shortly after we joined Cirque du Soleil. My brother got cancer, and the circus took care of him — they paid for everything. He lived and has been performing for 15 years since then. We were very lucky to be here.

I don't have to cook for myself anymore, as Cirque du Soleil has an amazing kitchen. We have three chefs who tour with us, and depending on where we are in the world, we get a local chef to cook for us too.

We all eat there every day, around 200 people. It starts in the morning around 8 o'clock and is a great way to start our day, as we feel like one big family. It's like having a five-star restaurant cooking for you all of the time. They're always cooking different food, so it never gets boring.

My daughter used to tour with us, so she had to go to the Cirque du Soleil school

A positive of her attending this school, rather than a regular school, is that she can now speak English, French, and Spanish fluently because we're traveling around so much. During her time living with me at the circus, she also learned ballet with a Russian artist and hand balancing, but this wasn't part of the Cirque du Soleil school.

Now, when we travel, we no longer have to live in an RV. We have nice apartments or hotel rooms bought for us by the circus. Some people ask if that starts to feel weird, because I never really have a home. But, to me, Cirque du Soleil is my home. I feel taken care of by this circus.

Even during the pandemic, when we couldn't perform, we worried maybe we wouldn't have work. But no, they gave us all new contracts.

I don't miss performing in my family circus

Cirque du Soleil's level of care is amazing, and it's great to perform next to the best artists in the world. My family circus is not at that level.

The best part of it all is that we're constantly traveling the world, seeing different countries and making friends. It feels like I'm always on vacation.