When I was younger, I remember being glued to the television screen watching Canadian figure skaters from Jamie Salé and David Pelletier to Joannie Rochette and Elvis Stojko twirling around and seamlessly gliding across the rink. So when Cirque du Soleil announced its first-ever experience on ice, I was over the moon and the little girl inside me was beyond thrilled.
CRYSTAL blends circus arts into unchartered territory - the world of ice skating, taking audiences on a unique journey to a frozen playground where the lead character Crystal dives into her own imagination and curiosity as she discovers she isn't like everyone else and out of sync with herself.
To escape her reality, she ventures out on a frozen pond and falls through the ice into an upside world. In this underwater world of her imagination, she sees a reflection of herself. Her reflection guides her through this new world and wakes her up to her own creativity.
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Cirque du Soleil CRYSTAL artists perform by Kingston Trolley as they toured around town. |
Throughout the show, both gymnasts and skaters perform acrobatics on the ice and in the air, combining multiple disciplines together. Synchronized skating, freestyle figures, and extreme skating are featured alongside circus disciplines such as swinging trapeze, aerial straps, and hand to hand. Figure skaters learned how to be pushers on Chinese poles, while circus artists learned how to skate, and extreme skaters learned figure skating moves. Just spectacular!
AND! Did you know the cast of this show represents eleven different nationalities?! All from the figure, extreme and freestyle ice skaters, acrobats, musicians and comic character.
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Photo by Matt Beard. |
After being wowed by the show on its first-night performance, I was thoroughly impressed by the music, the artistry, the acrobatics, the visual projections and most importantly the show's theme.
"The show CRYSTAL is about looking at things from fresh angles, peeking through the veneer of everyday life, reframing one’s daily reality to see what one might have missed. Sometimes the only way to appreciate things is to look at them sideways. Discovering one’s individuality and uniqueness requires venturing out on thin ice."
When it came to the music, it was lively, intense and intriguing. It was neat to see that CRYSTAL had popular cover versions of well-known pop songs - a first for a Cirque du Soleil show, that included Sia and Beyoncé, specifically recorded for the show that definitely got the crowd going. Cirque also paid homage to the music of Canada's Maritime provinces while preserving the signature sound of Cirque. This was combined with showcasing Canadian pride through a hockey act where extreme skaters performed crazy flips, twists and jumps at full speed, turning the ice into a giant pinball machine. I'm sure kids in the audience were mesmerized and what better way to keep the celebrating going as Canada Day long weekend was just here. As performers zipped by, the best part, was lead character Crystal jumping out sporting a Kingston Frontenac jersey. Well props to whoever was responsible for that neat marketing plug!
Here's a sneak peek of the act and set design:
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Photo by Matt Beard. |
Overall this performance is definitely worth a watch and treating yourself! As Cirque du Soleil’s 42nd creation and the company’s first ice experience, you'll be amazed at the level of artistry and beautiful blend between skating and acrobatics. Playing double duty of figure skating while performing stunts such as aerial trapeze, balance poses and straps or playing an instrument, well I was left speechless with all these showstopping moments.
CRYSTAL is being presented at the Kingston’s Leon’s Centre for a limited run of performances from July 3-7, 2019.
Tickets available
here.
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Cirque du Soleil artists showing an acrobatic act in front of Fort Henry. |
Enjoy the show!