I've just returned home from the ice dance show Crystal by Cirque du Soleil and it was marvelous! I bought the tickets back in January as a birthday present for my mum - I thought it would be a nice treat and a day out for both of us and we've had a great time. As I love both ice dancing and the circus, this show was right up my street and we were sat on the edge of our seats the whole time.
Crystal tells the story of a young school girl who wants to escape the pressures of homework and parental nagging, so she takes herself off to skate on the lake. There the ice cracks beneath her and she descends into a magical world under the ice, where she goes on lots of wondrous and whimsical adventures.
She meets acrobats and ice hockey players, jugglers and tumblers, as well as aerialists and of course, a clown. You can't have a circus without a clown, even if he's on ice and can't skate! It was such an original show. I've never seen anything quite like it before. It's more than a circus and more than figure skating, with a balletic score and a narrative running through it.
At times it reminded me of Alice in Wonderland, then the next minute it would be more like Anne of Green Gables writing her imagination into reality. It was just so magical and enchanting. My favourite parts were the trapeze and aerialist sets - they were quite stunning in their beauty and graceful beyond words.
But I also loved the ice-hockey section too, which really surprised me as I wasn't expecting to, but the music was Celtic, the skaters were fast and they used skate-boarding type ramps to perform some magnificent jumps and somersaults. It was breath-taking and the choreography had to be very precise as a collision would have been serious. I have nothing but admiration for these skaters and high risks performers who were risking life and limb, just to entertain us! There were even a couple of actual 'head-bangers' going on right in front of us!
Needless to say the childhood part of me who wanted to be a circus girl when she grew up was in her element. I can ice-skate and I can juggle, but I could never do both at the same time - let alone backwards and on one leg! My mum said that it was the best show she'd ever seen and the best birthday present I could have got for her.
It was fantastic and I'm really glad that we got the chance to go and see it. I brought home a beautiful souvenir too - a sparkly silver ice-skate ornament. I don't know where I'm going to put it yet, but I know it will lend a touch of ice-skating magic to my home decor. After the show we went for a Sunday roast at the local carvery pub, just to finish off the day and now I'm home again and about to watch the final of Dancing on Ice. All in all, it's been a whimsical, ice-princess of a day.
If you get the chance to go and see the Crystal show, you absolutely should. Ticket prices and souvenirs are quite expensive, but it's a show you'll never forget, so get your skates on before it sells out!
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