OVO

Presented by Cirque du Soleil.

At Agganis Arena, Boston, Sept. 6-10. Tickets start at $40, 800-745-3000, www.ticketmaster.com

Cirque du Soleil’s ensemble of acrobats and aerial artists perform acts of athleticism so stunning they can appear superhuman to those less gymnastically inclined.

Kyle Cragle, a 21-year-old hand-balancing contortionist who plays a dragonfly in Cirque’s touring show “OVO,’’ confirms that he is, in fact, one of us. But it took over a decade of gymnastics and circus training to prepare him to play the character featured in a six-minute solo performance at the show’s beginning.

“It’s a big challenge, because I’m a human, I’m not a dragonfly,’’ Cragle says. “I don’t have four wings I can move separately and six legs, right? So, I have to find a way to turn all of my movement into something that looks like a dragonfly, but stays beautiful as a human that’s entertaining to watch.’’

“OVO,’’ which comes to Boston University’s Agganis Arena for seven shows Sept. 6-10, is about a day in the life of a colony of insects who encounter a newcomer, a blue fly called The Foreigner who arrives with a giant, mysterious egg on his back (“ovo’’ means “egg’’ in Portuguese). Romance blooms between the blue fly and the ladybug as the colony learns about acceptance and eventually welcomes the fly into its community.

The Boston show is the last US stop in a global tour that will continue overseas. The show premiered in 2009 in the Big Top, Cirque du Soleil’s blue-and-yellow circus tent that travels with the touring performers as their mobile venue. Last year, “OVO’’ left the Big Top and began touring as an arena-based show, which expanded the amount of space the performers have to work with, changed and condensed a few acts, and added features, like video projections.

Two of the performers, Cragle and Alanna Baker, spoke to the Globe on a visit to Boston earlier this month.

Baker’s acrobatic character, the black spider, is the closest thing the lighthearted, family-friendly show has to a villain, she says. Baker, whose “playful, seductive’’ character weaves in and out of several different acts throughout the show, said she uses her own emotions to influence the black spider’s movements.

“You need to play with your character,’’ says Baker, a Londoner. She says that improvising the black spider’s personality is “fun. It depends what mood I’m in.’’

Baker, who started out as a flea in “OVO’’ and has now been with the show for more than three years, trained for months for the black spider’s transition from tent to arena. Cragle, a Texan who joined at the start of the arena tour less than a year ago, trained for six weeks and watched several documentaries about insects to get down the details of a dragonfly’s movements. He once stopped in the middle of a sidewalk on his way home and observed a resting dragonfly for 10 minutes, he says.

Both performers praised the variety of art forms present in Cirque du Soleil shows — live music, singing, costume design, and acrobatics create a platform where three generations can be “laughing at the same joke,’’ Cragle says.

“We transport you, but in a very live, human connectivity sort of fashion,’’ he says. “It’s real. That’s the thing — it’s real. We’re creating magic. And it’s magic for you, and it’s magic for me.’’

OVO

Presented by Cirque du Soleil. At Agganis Arena, Boston, Sept. 6-10. Tickets: From $40, 800-745-3000, www.ticketmaster.com

Kaitlyn Locke can be reached at kaitlyn.locke@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter at @ke_locke.