Ice show is Cirque evolution

Growing up in Paris, Fabrice Lemire trained as a dancer. But, he says, at one time he seriously considered going into figure skating.

It didn't happen, but it's a link for the artistic director of Cirque du Soleil Crystal to the company's first-ever show on ice.

North Little Rock's Verizon Arena is the fourth venue to host the show (7:30 p.m. Thursday-Friday, 3:30 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 1 and 5 p.m. Sunday). Previous tour stops: Lafayette, La.; San Antonio; and Pensacola, Fla.

Lemire says they're working out the kinks as they go along.

"It was a short creation -- 15 weeks to create," he explains. "We do have a show, it's presentable, but we're fine-tuning, getting the performers to completely live in the moment, and take it to the next level."

The show, Cirque's 42nd, focuses on a young woman named Crystal who, in sort of an Alice in Wonderland fashion, falls through the ice on a pond and discovers a world of imagination below, where she discovers -- herself.

"Discovering one's individuality and uniqueness," according to the show's official description, "requires venturing out on thin ice." (Which also goes a long way to appreciating the show's not-so-subtle subtitle: "A Breakthrough Ice Experience.")

"There is a beautiful storyline," Lemire says. "It reflects the growth of a child. She feels not accepted at home, she's feeling like any child going through the process of age. It's an easy link for any one of us. We all went through this -- you are faced with who you want to become as an adult."

Did the show's 18-member creative team hire skaters and teach them cirque techniques, or did they hire cirque performers and teach them to skate?

"We have both for this one," Lemire says. The show has a cast of 40, half of whom are professional figure skaters. "We also have some extreme sports skaters," he says. "And then we have 20 acrobats that had to learn how to skate -- it's on the ice, so everybody had to have some basic ability. Our jugglers are on skates; we have a trapeze artist, she's on skates."

It was probably harder to teach the acrobats to skate, he says. "These skaters remain in their element. We don't ask the skaters to do acrobatics; they stay more in the territory that they're compatible in.

"This group of professionals is really wonderful; they help us to understand the reality of what it is, to bring us closer to the world they're in."

Lemire has overseen the development of Cirque's last three shows, Quidam, Varekai and Toruk -- the latter, which came through North Little Rock in February 2016, was based on the world James Cameron created for the movie Avatar.

But why would Cirque du Soleil assay an ice show, a genre that seems to have been dominated recently by Disney?

"Thirty years into the life of an institution, it's time to ... find new routes to explore our artistic ability and our artistic eye," Lemire says.

"We have an opportunity right now to merge new discipline. There's an evolution of aesthetic, of creation, style, whatever you want to call it ...."

And, he says, it's a way to open up the company to new audiences. "The opportunity is there. I'm looking at it the other way around: Why not offer something new?

"It's a chance to push our horizons. With every show we do, we learn as we go along."

Style on 10/24/2017