Cirque du Soleil presents “CRYSTAL” – Avenir Centre

Cirque du Soleil presents “CRYSTAL” – Avenir Centre – Moncton, NB

Posted: 16th August 2019 by refrainmusic in Concerts

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The first thing I have to say…is go see this show! You have five more opportunities between Saturday and Sunday to see this wonderful acrobatic extravaganza on ice, Cirque Du Soleil’s – Crystal! This was my first Cirque show and aside from seeing the odd video clip on YouTube I didn’t know what to expect. The one time I was in a location that I could have seen a show, the one I wanted to see (Ka – Las Vegas) was on a two week hiatus. I was very excited to take in the first of one of the ‘eight’ shows being presented this week in Moncton at the Avenir Centre.

Earlier in the day I had the amazing opportunity to take a tour backstage with Senior Publicist for the show Janie Mallet, who just happens to be a native Monctonian, and is working on her second Cirque Du Soleil show after touring 27 countries with Toruk – The First Flight. We started in the tunnels below the arena where the show had racks of their special skates and footwear for the show. Janie explained to us how with each show they sometimes have to design special clothing to make a certain thing ‘work’ as part of the show. Not all of the performers have skates but have to be able to ‘grip’ the ice for certain stunts without damaging the ice for the skaters.

Cirque Du Soleil – “Crystal” (Special Gear) – Avenir Centre ~ Moncton, NB – Canada

The wardrobe team was hard at work in the afternoon preparing costumes, touching up wigs, repainting shoes that had been scuffed and marked during the performance. The racks of costumes lined up for repair, cleaning, for the athletes and acrobats involved in the show. You can just imagine the amount of material that goes into costuming a production such as this, keeping it clean and prepped and ready to go. Speaking of keeping it clean, the show travels with six industrial washing machines as part of its gear to keep everything fresh and ready.

Cirque Du Soleil – “Crystal” (Wardrobe) – Avenir Centre ~ Moncton, NB – Canada

The artists take time throughout the day to rehearse parts of the act, especially the more tenuous ones, where the obvious talent and concentration of the performers are of utmost importance. In the shot below you can see this member of the crew balancing on several alternating chairs, on top of a table, on “ice” and then turning the whole thing with his feet (yikes). Many of the performers are not only high caliber athletes but amazing aerialists, contortionists, acrobats, musicians and entertainers. One of the main musicians, who incidentally is from Halifax, I was told plays something like 9 instruments at a highly skilled level, during the show we saw him play around 5 of them, one a clarinet…while skating! One of the ladies in the show I spoke with, was a trapeze artist and had to physically ‘learn how to skate’ in order to join the show…imagine being on skates, on a trapeze!?

Cirque Du Soleil – “Crystal” (Practice) – Avenir Centre ~ Moncton, NB – Canada

Everything in a show this size needs going over from the lighting design (see below) to the ‘ice ramps’, the wiring in some of the costumes and sensors in the skates (it allows the lights to track some of the skaters for some of the effects), microphones on the skates for certain scenes and much more. One highlight of the behind the scenes tour I got to speak to Shawn Sawyer, another native New Brunswicker from Edmunston, who after an accomplished career in the figure skating world became part of a new show called Crystal. Shawn heard about the show through fellow Olympian Kurt Browning and the champion skater, after months of work with acrobatics became part of the 42nd Cirque creation. Shawn now calls himself ‘not just an athlete, but an artist’.

Cirque Du Soleil – “Crystal” (Light Rehearsal) – Avenir Centre ~ Moncton, NB – Canada

Crystal is a story of a young girl who doesn’t feel she fits in her reality, she ventures out on the ice on a frozen pond, which eventually cracks and she falls through into another mirror reality, an upside down world where she sees a reflection of herself. Her reflection is the dark yet seemingly helpful side of herself that helps her focus her strength when she needs it most. In a journey of self discovery she manifests her creativity and is eventually able to finally find her way back to her family in her own reality, but not without having some fantastic adventures below the ice first!