Section 37.09. Protection of aerial performers from accidental falls

1. No
  person shall participate in any public performance or  exhibition  on  a
  trapeze, tightrope, wire, rings, ropes, poles, or other aerial apparatus
  which  requires skill, timing or balance and which creates a substantial
  risk to himself or others of serious injury from falling,  unless  there
  shall be provided for such performance a safety belt, life-net, or other
  safety  device  of  similar  purpose  suitably constructed and placed to
  arrest or cushion his fall and minimize the  risk  of  such  injury.  No
  owner,  agent,  lessee,  manager  or other person in charge of a circus,
  carnival, fair, theatre, moving-picture house,  public  hall,  or  other
  public  place  of assembly, resort or amusement, shall permit any person
  to take part in a performance specified herein  without  providing  such
  safety  device.  Any  such aerial performance or exhibition without such
  safety device in which the height of possible fall is more  than  twenty
  feet, shall be presumed to create a substantial risk of serious injury.
    2.  The  commissioner  of  labor  may make rules supplementary to this
  section designating safety devices of an  approved  type,  strength  and
  location   and   otherwise   effectuating   the   purposes  hereof.  The
  commissioner may also grant variations pursuant  to  the  provisions  of
  section  thirty  of  the  labor law. Violations of this section shall be
  punishable as provided in section two hundred thirteen of the labor  law
  for violations thereunder.
    3.  In  acting upon an application for a variation, the board may take
  into consideration the availability, in whole or  part,  of  practicable
  safety  devices  for  a particular type of performance or exhibition and
  the history and nature of the accidents incurred in such performance  or
  exhibition.  The  provisions  of subdivision one of this section and the
  rules of the board issued pursuant to this section shall be inapplicable
  to any performance or exhibition concerning which a variation  has  been
  issued to the extent specified in such variation.