"Sometimes I can hear little boys like, 'Mummy, Mummy, she's gonna fall' or I can hear kids screaming," she said.

Cameron will be performing the aerial silks contortion in the circus troupe's almost 20-year-old show, Quidam, at the AIS Arena from Thursday night.

Quidam is the tale of a young girl who slips into an imaginary world where she meets a host of curious characters who encourage her to finally free her soul from a meaningless, modern society.

Cameron's character is the soul of the little girl's mother.

The Scottish gymnast, who has performed on the silks for three of her nine years with Quidam, writhes around the ribbons in a graceful performance that gradually speeds up to an erratic routine, representing the mother's loss of control.

"She's supposed to be out of control, it's supposed to look like she's touching the silk for the first time," she said.

"It's that feeling when you're completely out of control of your life, you just don't know what to do... It's that feeling you can't really live with what you've done."

While the nail-biting performance looks effortless, Cameron can't lose control of the silks.

"From the minute I go on to the stage to the minute I get off stage I can't lose focus," she said.

"It's very unpredictable; one day the silk can be very sticky, the next day it can be really dry, the air conditioning can make you spin or blow away. There's so many factors involved.

"I have to be efficient, I have to be very precise."

It's a jump for the former sports acrobatics competitor, who said she "fell" into the role after performing the show's hoop and finale routines.

"I'd never even climbed a rope before I tried silks but I was real determined I wanted to do it. With bruises and burns and tears I managed to push through and finally get the act."

When fellow performer Cory Sylvester first saw the German wheel used on stage many years ago he was inspired to perform in the circus.

Close to two decades later he's doing exactly that, manoeuvring the giant apparatus on stage.

"For me, it opened my world to something new," he said.

"What it did for me, in a sense, parallels what the role does for the show. As I see it, the role opens up the world, stirs up the dust a little bit, and opens the eyes of this little girl going through this moment in her life we call Quidam."

Like Cameron, a new arena can be a challenge for Sylvester: humidity, the shape of the stage.

He also has to keep himself sharp, despite years controlling the wheel.

"You train yourself to adapt very, very quickly," he said.

"It's a physically and mentally challenging activity. If my entire work day is compressed into the five minutes I'm doing my act, there aren't any microseconds I can fall asleep during my work day."

The edge doesn't wear off completely, even after a decade of performing.

"I think it's a healthy thing to always maintain that excitement," he said.

"There's aways a sense of an edge... a little bit of butterflies. One of my colleagues said to me when I first started, her grandmother told her, 'if you've got butterflies, make them fly'. I thought that was a great way to harness the idea of having butterflies in your stomach."

Cirque du Soleil's is on December 10-20 at the AIS Arena. Tickets are on sale. Visit cirquedusoleil.com/quidam