Crystal is a new concept in the world of performances. Ice has been used for sport and for sport entertainment, but it has never been the medium for an acrobatic show. The questions never before answered were, how does a skater use angle and momentum machines to perform in the air above the ice? How would a skater launch? How would a skater land?
Cirque du Soleil has become a megastar performing arts company by finding solutions to those problems. The skating spectacular Crystal is on tour now to show how they have changed the conversation about what the skate can be as an entertainment tool.
This is one of the first cities to see the show. Cirque du Soleil's executive creative director Daniel Fortin sat down for a conversation especially for Prince George. Invented and prepared in Quebec, Prince George is a city known as a peer community for embracing the colder side of the calendar as La Belle Provence does.
One of Prince George's best known slogans is "We Are Winter" so what better place to showcase an icebreaking new show that uses as ice as a canvas.
"It's new for everyone," said Fortin.
"It actually seems like a fast process, in a way, like we blinked and we are here, and so proud to see the actual creation come out of all the research and designing and rehearsing. When we look back at the original concept outlines, it's like looking back at videos of a child who is now an adult."
There is a coming-of-age that happens in front of the audience's eyes when they watch this show. Crystal is the title and it is also the name of the main character, a youth who feels a bit like a misfit among her peers and friends. When she falls through the ice on a winter walk, she plunges beneath the icy waters and into a hallucination world, a fantasyland, and like Alice in Wonderland she has to learn to interact with the scenes playing out around her.
They seem so lifelike. They seem like visions of the future. She even meets a mirror image of herself. And these scenes give her a glimpse at life - perhaps even her life yet to come. And these visions come with decisions she must make as much as the sinking into the water comes with the choice between sink or swim.
Not every Cirque du Soleil show has such a fathomable story. This was important, said Fortin, since the audience had a lot of disbelief to suspend already, with skaters rocketing into the air, spinning and whirling, and still gliding across the ice on a blade of steel only a millimetre wide.
"We wanted people to understand the story," he said. "It is another way to respond to the show, another layer of appreciation and enjoyment. And even we, so much inside the show, love this character. Crystal can be so funny, she gets herself into this experience, we don't like it and we don't want to go there - it's a near-death experience - but it is also an adventure and she responds like perhaps we would respond. We can relate to her in that way. We respond to her, we want to know what comes next for her, because she is such a compelling and interesting person."
He admitted that for all the Cirque performances he has seen, and all his insider knowledge about the way the feats of human physics are accomplished, this one still knocks him dumb. Since there is no trickery or illusion involved, how can he not be moved by the power of these acro athletes, and the mechanical magicians that invented the props and set-pieces that make it all happen for the acrobats.
Another high point for this show, said Fortin, is the music. As always, Cirque has the orchestration composed especially for the show (this time by Maxime Lepage) and most of it is performed live each night.
The difference this time is, and Cirque almost never does this, is they reached out into the realm of pop music and licensed some recognizable songs to blend into this mix. Crystal is a youth, and the music of her generation slips out into this soundtrack. You'll recognize U2's Beautiful Day, Beyonce's Halo, Sia's Chandelier, and Nina Simone's Sinnerman.
"It's all very deep and strong," Fortin said. "There is actually a point near the end where there's a violin playing and it just gets me, I get very emotional almost every time. I'm very attached to it, and I feel something very special."
Fortin has a busy job with the overall Cirque organization, but he has no greater day at work than watching the rehearsal process.
"It's having the chance to see these amazing people get together with all their talents, discover each other, teach each other, become a family. Every time I go away, that's how I feel, like I'm leaving my family, and I can't wait to come home to them again. It's a great lesson for life because these people come from all over the world, there are no walls here, they are welcomed together, and of course they are also the best in the world at the things they do so I am always impressed. I never get used to that. I'm always impressed."
Another element that makes Fortin impressed is the lighting. This show may not have been possible to do even five or six years ago because the story is told with effects from the sky. Lighting effects have been a staple of theatre since the age of candles and lanterns, but this show had the technological advancements in projectionism at its disposal. Entire scenes can play out on the ice and walls of the Crystal set. Other characters can make appearances who aren't even there at all. Places can change, seasons can change. It is a lightyear farther than mood lighting.
"Ice is a beautiful canvas. We had to use that," Fortin said. "And I think at times our effects teams made magic, with light and video working together. The people behind the scenes, honestly, they are acrobats too in the way they do their jobs. You don't see them, but they are amazing, too."
All the elements of Crystal come together on CN Centre's canvas from Wednesday to April 29. Tickets are available 24/7 on the TicketsNorth website or in person at the CN Centre box office.
