cirque du soleil and the talent conundrum

Have you ever attended Cirque du Soleil?
We've been lucky enough to attend a few times: so many performers with so much incredible talent. How do they find these performers, who seem able to do anything? Street buskers want ten bucks to juggle three or four balls, but in CdS there was the guy juggling eight balls, while also shooting them one at a time into a little cup he wore on his head. How? Someone walks across a taut high wire, to great fanfare (in a usual circus), but then a team of CdS performers uses a slack line, swinging it side to side while doing handstands and two-person cartwheels. People train for their entire young lives in figure skating, yet somehow CdS has an entire show full of skaters who can not only do the usual jumps and spins, but also go up and down ramps, do flips, and perform as a team. How is this pool of talent possible? Where do they find these people? It feels like the franchise has figured something out, either a magic way to bring out the best in a group, or creating a space for people with these particular skills to actually make a living.

Should we laugh or cry, comparing CdS to the travelling circus that used to come to town periodically? The juggler dropped his (four) balls, the tightrope walker fell and had to grab the tightrope with his hands, the elephant tragically sat on its trainer, crushing him (side note: a diagnosis that never comes up in medical school training). Clearly, a different funding/hiring model at work.
     Truth be told, I'm amazed at the general level of talent out there. Every dance school seems to have an acrobatics class full of limber teenagers doing splits and handsprings. Gymnastics schools abound, trampoline programs, and look at those "Cheer" programs in the States! Maybe I shouldn't be surprised that CdS is able to pull in all of those tremendous performers; once competitions are finished, where else would they go?
     Although I find the skill sets incredible, I'm sure these performers must sometimes ask themselves, what is the point? What is my role in making the world a better place? And yet, they are athletes, just as sports celebrities are athletes, and no one seems to question the existence of the NHL, or the NBA. Why is circus-related talent considered "only" entertainment, rather than skill? Also, are these amazing performers also good at other things? Are they accountants, lawyers, members of Perimeter Institute? Or have they spent all their time developing their unbelievable muscle control? Surely there's a documentary somewhere. I'll have to look.
     Whether hockey, music, dance, soccer, it seems like every parent wants their child to be the standout performer. I wonder if the CdS performers' parents swell with pride, or think "this is a ridiculous livelihood with no stability and why didn't they take my advice and become a pharmacist?" Likely, both types of parents exist.
     Bottom lines, for me: 1) the arts matter (no Earth shattering news there)
                                        2) all skills are worth developing and can become great
                                        3) sports and dance-based arts have significant overlap despite the difference in support and funding
                                         4) maybe we all have hidden skills we never even knew about (but mine absolutely do NOT involve juggling or tightrope walking).
What's your hidden talent? I'd love to know.