Cirque du Soleil brings acrobatics on ice to UBS Arena

There’s one scene during the new “Crystal” Cirque du Soleil ice show when artistic director Rob Tannion always holds his breath — an acrobat is in the middle of the ice rink piling chair upon chair and climbing from his perch on a table to the top of the seats in a daring balancing act.

It’s not until the performer is back down that Tannion exhales. “It’s one of the parts of the show when I’m always relieved when it’s finished. We are live theater and things can go wrong. At the end of the day, it is a human being balanced on top of a table,” he says.

The scene is just one in the two-hour performance coming to the UBS Arena in Elmont from July 21 to 24. The show tells the tale of Crystal, a teenage girl who feels she doesn’t fit in, runs away from home, and, while skating on a frozen pond, falls through a crack in the ice and plunges into another world. There, she meets her own reflection who helps her explore herself and her possibilities. “We feel like we grow up a little bit with her on this journey,” Tannion says.

“Crystal” is the 42nd Cirque du Soleil creation but the first done on ice. The creators wanted to combine the acrobatic circus arts Cirque is known for — swinging trapeze, pendulum poles, juggling — with an ice show. Some of the acrobats wear special shoes with crampons on them so they don’t slip on the ice, Tannion says.

The tour had been performing for two years before the pandemic froze it in 2020. “It took a nap,” Tannion says. The show regrouped and started touring again in May. This is its first stop on Long Island. “We’re so happy to hear the audience laughing and clapping again,” he says.

LIKE MODERN ‘ALICE IN WONDERLAND’

The chair scene represents Crystal pondering a life of working in an office. Other scenes occur at a playground, in a ballroom, and in front of a crystal ice wall. The venues are created using projections on the ice and backgrounds as well as by using some voice-overs and text.

Canadian Robin Johnstone, 48, is a skater who plays Crystal — she alternates the role with another skater. Johnstone says "Crystal" is like an ice show on steroids because of all the acrobatics. She also enjoys the acting she is expected to do to accompany the storyline.

“It’s really like a modern-day ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ where she falls through this crack and goes on an adventure,” Johnstone says.

In the first half of the show, Johnstone’s favorite part is skating with what the show calls the hockey guys. They wear hockey jerseys and skates and do extreme skating — flips off ramps and half-pipes. “That’s another heart-in-mouth moment,” Tannion says.

LONG ISLANDER TO THE RESCUE

If something does go awry, Long Islander Brandon Whitworth is on the job — he graduated from Shoreham-Wading River High School in 2002, and then attended Stony Brook University and Touro College to become a physical therapist. Whitworth, 38, travels with the show treating performers.

With 43 skaters and acrobats of 18 nationalities performing, there are new injuries every single day, Whitworth says. They might be overuse injuries, tendinitis, muscle or lower back pain, even concussions. With varied acts including aerialists and jugglers and even the musicians who provide live music, each discipline presents its own set of risk factors making the job intellectually challenging, Whitworth says. “He’s a vital part of the team,” Tannion says of Whitworth’s contribution behind the scenes.

Whitworth is excited for the show to come to Belmont Park, he says, because two of his brothers and three young nieces and nephews still live on Long Island, and they’ll be coming to a performance. “My nieces are in love with ‘Frozen,’ and I think they’re really going to absolutely love ‘Crystal,’” he says.

By Beth Whitehouse

beth.whitehouse@newsday.comBethWhitehouse1

Beth Whitehouse writes about families, parenting and great things to do with the kids on Long Island. She’s been a Newsday editor and shared a 1997 Newsday staff Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the crash of TWA Flight 800.