Bodaciously Awesome Family Show: Cirque du Soleil’s CRYSTAL

Cirque du Soleil shows are often amazing. They feature powerful displays of strength, elegant beauty, and are visually stimulating. Usually this happens on a traditional stage. With Cirque du Soleil’s CRYSTAL, however, they move off the stage and perform the show entirely on ice. It’s cool.

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The show follows segments similar to most Cirque shows. There’s a juggling act, for instance (and it’s great). What sets this show really apart is how they use the ice environment. Seeing Cirque on a stage is amazing, seeing it unfold on ice is next level.

The show is full of death-defying set pieces. I couldn’t count the number of times we sat frozen on the edge of seats, jaws wide open as we watched the show. Both kids were completely engaged—with my older son getting out his phone a few times to take photos to show his friends the next day. The most dazzling piece was the hockey scene.

The most amazing thing about the hockey scene? Ramps. Lots of ramps. You know when you see Cirque performers bringing out ramps, you’re about to see something special. For this scene they brought out 10 of them and arranged them all over the ice. They then proceeded to speed skate and jump (and do mid-air flips) as they went through a hockey scene. (Of course, our heroine, Crystal, comes out wearing a hometown Lightning jersey, much to the delight of the crowd.)

Living in central Florida, my kids don’t get to experience cold weather often. This year we had two spectacular ice-based experiences, this and ICE! at the Gaylord Palms. Both were wildly different and incredible in their own way. Cirque du Soleil’s CRYSTAL was a great way to cap off our year with a fantastic show that both kids and adults loved.

You can find out more about Cirque du Soleil’s CRYSTAL on their website.

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