UCF alum works with different cultures as La Nouba trainer

Behind the trapeze artists, trampolinists, dancers and clowns of Cirque du Soleil's La Nouba are three dedicated athletic trainers ready to help in any medical situation.

One of them is Matt Biancuzzo.

Biancuzzo, who graduated from UCF in 2006 with a bachelor's in athletic training, joined the Performance Medicine department last June. He  worked at Georgia Southern University's athletic program for two years after grad school at Florida State University.

Despite the difference in athletes, Biancuzzo has adjusted well to the high-flying, high-risk acrobatics of the Cirque du Soleil show.

"Ultimately a knee injury is a knee injury and a shoulder injury is a shoulder injury," Biancuzzo said. "Injuries are injuries, but it's just understanding the biomechanics behind it how the injuries are gonna happen and how you approach that individual based on the injury."

Biancuzzo said that the biggest hurdle is understanding the cultural differences among the performers, but that he tries hard to navigate them.

"It's all about trying to educate, help people and trying to get them to understand the differences," Biancuzzo said.

Other trainers have told Biancuzzo about performers who abide by old wives' tales, such as treating a sprained ankle by dipping their feet in apple cider.

"A lot of cultures use them and you can't just disregard them because then that becomes disrespectful," Biancuzzo said. "You have to really try to understand them and think, ‘Is that gonna be beneficial and will what I can offer to them be beneficial?' and just work with them."

Biancuzzo has worked with more than 67 performers from 14 different countries with the majority coming from Russia.

Roman Timokhine, a power-track trampoline artist, is one of those Russian performers. Six months ago, Timokhine, who has been with Cirque du Soleil for ten years, strained the ligaments in his left knee and began rehabilitation with Biancuzzo.

"I think I'm in good hands," Timokhine said. "Without these people helping me, I wouldn't be able to continue performing."

Biancuzzo and the other athletic trainers work with performers in three different regimens that are specialized based on their needs.

Regiments include workouts that test endurance, strength and speed. One of the regimens that Biancuzzo uses with Timokhine focuses on his knee and strengthens it with lifting exercises and tossing a medicine ball.

The trainers work in eight-hour shifts to ensure that one of them is always present while a show is running. In addition, there are two "les cons," or clowns, trained for emergency response service.

"If somebody got hit by a car and completely fractured their leg, they would be way more qualified than me to handle the situation," Biancuzzo said. "In an orthopedic rehabilitation setting I would be more qualified, but we are able to work together well and combine our knowledge."

Together, they all collaborate and brainstorm new scenarios where something could possibly go wrong.

"There are some situations we go over where they literally would never happen," Biancuzzo said. "At our last training session we were wondering what would happen if one person fell on top of the other and were like, ‘Well the likelihood that would happen is very small, but it could happen,' so we discussed it and it is stuff we always bring up and go over."

Biancuzzo stresses the importance of warming up and training religiously to all the performers to help prolong their careers.

"It's a lot of give and take.  There are people who are pro-active and do it on their own and come to us for help and there are some who we have to go to and really encourage," he said. "You can't force somebody to do something they don't want to do."

La Nouba publicist Laura Murphy, appreciates the hard work of Biancuzzo and the rest of the Performance Medicine department.

"A lot of people see the performers and don't realize what goes on behind the scenes," Murphy said. "Without these trainers, this show just could not go on."