Cool mom brings Cirque du Soleil moves to playtime

ByLA Blake WPVI logo
Friday, May 6, 2016
A still from a video Gaukhar Akhmetova-Atherton posted to social media showing circus tricks she practices with her daughter, 3-year-old Kamali.
Gasya/Facebook

There's playtime for regular kids, and then there's playtime for circus kids.

Gaukhar Akhmetova-Atherton, also known as Gasya, worked for Cirque du Soleil from 2006-2012, but today Kamali, 3, and Kaysen, 1, are the stars of her new act: motherhood.

Gasya's husband, Andrew Atherton, is a current Cirque du Soleil performer.

The circus family lives in New York City, where Gasya posts about their adventures, especially the impressive tricks she does with her kids.

The kids also have their own Instagram pages (run by mom and dad!), where Kamali is already posting about training to be like mom.

Mom is no stranger to starting young, either. She began gymnastics when she was just 4 years old, she told Marie Novosad Studio, because she wanted to be like her older sister.

"I was always there at my sister's side, like a little tail following her," Gasya said. "Whatever she was doing, I had to do it. I had to copy my sister."

Today, Gasya has two copycats of her own in her adorable kids.

"Children are great imitators," she wrote. ""So give them something great to imitate!"

Copyright © 2024 WPVI-TV. All Rights Reserved.