Feature: From Pitt to Cirque du Soleil

Alix Croop is a perfectionist.

In gymnastics, that quality serves her well. But as a member… Alix Croop is a perfectionist.

In gymnastics, that quality serves her well. But as a member of the Cirque du Soleil entertainment company, the former Pitt gymnast finds learning to relax a bit of a challenge.

Croop, who graduated from Pitt in 2009 with a Psychology degree, is now living in Las Vegas, 15 minutes west of the strip with two members of the Cirque du Soleil cast. For the 24-year-old, changing her attitude about performance has been a challenge.

“My coaches here told me you kind of have to get away from the gymnastics-type mentality,” Croop said. “You’re not performing for a score, you’re performing to entertain these people. I have to relax a little bit more when I’m up there, and that’s been quite a challenge for me so far.”

Pitt gymnastics coach Debbie Yohman remembers Croop for always wanting to please her coaches and always trying to get better.

“She was also a perfectionist and very hard on herself,” Yohman said. “A lot of the time we spent telling her to take a little bit easier on herself.”

When she was competing for the University of Pittsburgh, Croop was a top talent. During her senior year, she was the East Atlantic Gymnastics League bar champion, qualified individually to regionals in all three of her events (bars, beams and floor) and tallied a career-high 9.9 score on Senior Night.

“She was one of those almost obsessively compelled athletes that ate, dreamed and breathed gymnastics,” Pitt gymnastics coach Mike Rowe said. “When she wasn’t in the gym, she was on YouTube looking at routines.”

Rowe, who played a major role in Croop’s transition to the entertainment world, has seen Croop grow from her early days at Pitt into the professional she is now.

“From the day we got her, we realized that Alix was a rare breed,” Rowe said. “Very passionate, dedicated, determined, committed to the sport.”

When Croop decided she wanted to give Cirque du Soleil a shot, Rowe was the perfect person to consult. He had spent time involved in theater and performance, so he felt he could help Croop train for her audition. Finding time in Croop’s schedule proved difficult.

“We came into the gym two or three times a week at 8 o’clock in the morning for a couple months,” Rowe remembered. “She was juggling work, school, her internship and all this stuff and at the same time, still found time to come to do work at eight in the morning.”

Along with being a top talent and a hard worker, Croop blazed a path as a leader.

“Alix was a role model, a supporter, a person kids would go to when they were down,” Yohman said. “I think from the day she started here she was just somebody everyone looked up to and admired.”

It wasn’t always easy for Croop, either. After suffering a knee injury her freshman year, Croop fought an uphill battle.

“She was a natural leader,” Rowe said. “Al is a person that is going to talk about goals and aspirations about the team, and like I said, she wants to follow through until the end. It wasn’t really a transition for her into being a leader, it was natural.”

While not all gymnasts go into the performing arts, Yohman says that Croop had a quality that made her special.

“One of the things that made Alix stand out was that she was just so elegant,” Yohman said. “She had these gorgeous lines and she was just pretty to watch. The kind of things you think of when you think of Cirque du Soleil.”