Review of Cirque du Soleil's Crystal

Once upon a time I went to a show and it was called Crystal. It was about a girl named Crystal (Nobahar Dadui) who went skating one day, trying to escape from her life, and the ice cracked and she fell down into an alternate universe. Then she is led through her life by her reflection (Madeline Stammen). It is about finding yourself, growing up, and escaping. They tell the story with circus, ice skating, projections, voice over, and music. I think this is a very visually stunning show and there are really beautiful skating and acrobatic acts.

I really loved the aerial straps act. It was really beautiful. It was performed by Dadui and Jerome Sordillon. It was a courtship between Crystal and a man and they were performing to Beyoncé's "Halo." I love that song and it was very wistful. You noticed every movement of the act and paid attention to it because it was so emotional and mesmerizing. You are rooting for the character of Crystal, and it's really sweet to see her fall in love. I loved the way they put the iceskating (by Dadui) into the same act with the suitor who was doing the aerial straps, and then they would join together and it was absolutely gorgeous. Sordillon also did this thing where he was walking up air really really slowly and it was crazy. He must have amazing core strength!

The hand to trapeze act was awesome looking. Crystal was played by Emily McCarthy for this part. She got to the trapeze by walking on other people's hands, and it was just an amazing feat of balance. And then when she actually got up there, she leapt up into the arms of the man on the trapeze. It was so insane. You felt so scared for her, but she was just calm and collected the whole time. They are telling the story about how Crystal wants to get back up to the surface, to her real life. And the man on the trapeze is trying to keep her down. It was very lyrical and there was a lot of reaching. The struggle was beautiful to watch.

I always really love tap numbers, and I had never seen anything like this before. It was tap dancing on skates. It was absolutely crazy to listen to all the sounds that could come out of just skates. Then they (Zabato Bebe, Julien Duliere, Liza Mochizuki, and Shawn Sawyer) started having this competition. They tried to one-up each other. One person did a backflip that was just insane. One person ripped his shirt off. And everyone at the end did this huge tap number together that was really cool. They were all so in sync. It was just amazing. I loved it.

People who would like this show are people who like skate tap dancing, walking on hands, and Beyoncé being the soundtrack to your romance. I think people should definitely go see this show. It only has three more days in Chicago, so go see it soon! It is so much fun, has some beautiful art in it, and I really liked it.

Photos: Matt Beard