BREAKING THE ICE
Cirque du Soleil’s new show, Crystal, is about a woman who falls through a frozen pond into an imaginary world. Brendan Kelly got a sneak peek on Tuesday.
The last Cirque du Soleil show, Volta, added extreme BMX biking to the classic recipe. Now Montreal’s incredibly popular circus has come up with the idea of blending its eye-popping acrobatics and theatricality with the fast-paced thrills of high-level skating.
The new show, Crystal, is the Cirque’s first ice show, but the creators went to great lengths Tuesday to underline it is anything but a traditional skating show à la Disney on Ice. Local journalists were given a sneak preview of Crystal at the JC Perreault sports complex in Saint-Roch-de-l’Achigan in the Lanaudière region, about 50 kilometres from Montreal. They have been rehearsing the show there for the past few months.
Crystal will have its first public performances in second-tier U.S. markets beginning in October before premièring in Quebec in December. It will play Videotron Centre in Quebec City Dec. 13-17 and Bell Centre Dec. 20-31.
“The idea behind this was to use the ice as an element of performance,” said Sébastien Soldevila, who is co-directing Crystal with Shana Carroll.
“It’s not a skating show. It’s an ice show. It’s a mix between skating and acrobatics and we tried not to compromise one or the other. We tried to take the best parts of acrobatic circus and the best parts of skating.”
When I posted a video of the Crystal preview on Facebook Tuesday morning, a friend commented that it seemed like a desperate attempt on the part of the Cirque to find a bigger, more mainstream audience. Carroll, for one, said that reaction is surprising.
“I’m actually shocked that that’s the response because I feel it’s really an overdue marriage,” said Carroll, who with Soldevila is also co-artistic director of the Montreal circus company Les 7 doigts de la main.
“It’s so similar, this notion that you have athletes who also perform artistically. Circus and skating ... there aren’t many other disciplines in the world that are artistic performances as much as athletic performances. I can’t believe it’s been this long for the Cirque to do an ice show. With O, they did a water show. So for me, it’s really a perfect marriage. What Cirque did in the ’80s with circus shows, changing the lens and permitting people to see the circus as something artistic, well, ice shows have been needing that re-invention.”
The 42nd Cirque production really blends the two disciplines. Circus acts like swinging trapeze, aerial straps and hand-to-hand are mixed and matched with different forms of skating, including synchro, freestyle, figure and extreme skating on ramps. The skaters had to learn circus skills and many of the circus performers had to be taught how to perform on skates.
Some performers are on skates while others are in shoes fitted with special crampons created over months of meticulous research by the Cirque design team in Montreal.
Three acts were previewed at the rink Tuesday. Tempête features acrobats doing their acrobatics ( banquine, hand-to-hand and tumbling), while the skaters jump, flip and spin. The second piece is a hockey game that is less like the NHL and more focused on skaters doing high-octane jumps and flips on ramps on the ice. The last of the three was a romantic sequence where the main character Crystal performs a pas de deux with a man who descends on straps from the rafters.
The skating sequences are being overseen by four-time Canadian champ and Olympic competitor Kurt Browning.
“I think the biggest challenge is knowing when and how to blend the two worlds,” said Browning. “They know Cirque and I’ve done many skating shows. This is the
first time these two worlds have tried anything together. Someone asked me what I wished for the show and I said longevity, because with longevity will come growth and these two worlds will start to really learn about each other and more will happen. We’re all potential.”
It’s a mix between skating and acrobatics and we tried not to compromise one or the other.