Until the coronavirus pandemic hit, the Mongolian contortionist A.Uranbileg wowed spectators nightly at Cirque du Soleil shows on a cruise ship, contorting her body into a ball and balancing on a vertical stick held in her mouth.

For the past 50 days, however, the 26-year-old has been stuck in a cramped cabin off the Italian coast, doing a handstand and splits while conducting WhatsApp video calls and wondering when the locked down circus will perform again.

“Luckily, I’m used to contorting my body into small spaces,” she said from the ship where she has been grounded since her show shut down in March. “I can’t wait to get back to Cirque but we have no idea when the world will be ready to go see live shows again.”

From Broadway to sporting arenas, the pandemic has paralyzed the world of live entertainment, including Cirque du Soleil, the famed Quebec circus behemoth.