Matt Beard, Cirque du Soleil

By Grant Butler, The Oregonian/OregonLive

The world headquarters for Cirque du Soleil is in Montreal, where the Canadiens hockey team is followed with religious fervor, and ice sports like figure skating, speed skating and curling are woven into the city's DNA.

So you’ve got to wonder why it took more than three decades to create its first show on ice.

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Matt Beard, Cirque du Soleil

“I think Cirque has been thinking and talking about it for years, but they didn’t have the right tools to put it all together,” says figure skater Shawn Sawyer. “Since hockey and skating are so big in Canada, they wanted to incorporate as many things as possible in a show, and it took longer to put together. They did it the right way. They just took their time.”

The result is "Crystal," an arena-sized ice spectacle that opens a seven-performance run on April 4 at Portland's MODA Center. The show features some of the acrobatic and aerial acts that Cirque is known for, along with sequences involving synchronized ensembles skaters, solo skaters, and what Cirque calls "extreme skating."

Sawyer, who was a member of the 2006 Canadian Olympic team, got involved with “Crystal” when the show was in early development last year.

“I live in Montreal, and I’m friends with a lot of the skaters that they approached from the get-go,” he says. “I was called in to give my personal views of where the show could go, and they asked me if I was interested in participating in the show as an artist. I don’t think they knew what Cirque du Soleil meant to me, and I had my contract signed the next day.”

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Cirque du Soleil’s “Crystal”

When:

Opens 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 4, and continues 7:30 p.m. April 5-8, at 4 p.m. April 7, and at 1:30 and 5 p.m. April 8.

Where:

Moda Center, 1 Center Court.

Tickets and information:

$40-$130,

www.cirquedusoleil.com/crystal

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Matt Beard, Cirque du Soleil

In “Crystal,” Sawyer is a featured solo skater, and performs some of the tricks he’s developed over the years performing in professional skating shows like Stars on Ice.

“As a professional skater, I was known to push boundaries,” he says. “When they asked me to participate, they wanted me to showcase those tricks. They really picked skaters with individual talent and different backgrounds, so instead of trying to make everyone look alike, we shine differently in the show.”

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Matt Beard, Cirque du Soleil

Because Cirque has brought so many productions to Portland over the years, audiences might think they’ve seen it all. But Sawyer says putting circus acts on ice offers an adrenaline rush that’s unmatched by other shows.

“This show is very fast-paced,” Sawyer says. “It starts with a storm that opens the door to this new world, and there’s a lot happening at any one time.”

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Matt Beard, Cirque du Soleil

Shawn Sawyer

There’s always an increase in interest in skating after Winter Olympics, and Sawyer’s seen both the amateur and professional sides of the sport.

“They’re completely different worlds, though they have the same goals,” he says. “Whether you’re an athlete or an artist, you always want to give it 110 percent every day, every night, every performance. But the training schedule is a lot different. I’m not just a skater in the show, but I’m a performer doing new acrobatic things that I’ve only dreamed of doing before.”

Sawyer has great memories of competing in the 2006 games in Turin, Italy. Because he wasn't a favorite to medal (he finished 12th overall in men's skating), he says he wasn't in the media spotlight. That allowed him to enjoy the experience.

“When you watch the Olympics on TV, you get a sense of how large they are,” he says. “When you actually make the team, you see it from a different perspective. I was there to enjoy the journey and get as much experience as I could.”

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Matt Beard, Cirque du Soleil

Even though he was on the road with Cirque, he was obsessed with this year’s games.

“I was glued to the TV,” Sawyer says. “I’m a huge fan of the Winter Olympics, and I knew who the medal contenders were for speed skating, snowboarding, the half-pipe, the figure skating. I’m a true fan of winter sports.”

And Sawyer was thrilled to see history made when American skater Nathan Chen landed six quads in his long program.

“It shows how much the sport has evolved, and he proved he’s one of the best in the world,” Sawyer says. “He’s still a young fellow, and I can’t wait to see what he does in four years.”

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Matt Beard, Cirque du Soleil

When he was skating competitively, Sawyer was known for his eclectic taste in performance music. So it’s no surprise that one of his favorite things about “Crystal” is its score by composer Maxim Lepage.

“The music is the biggest highlight to me,” he says. “Night after night I get to listen to this incredible music, and it pushes me to raise my own level to match how beautiful the music is. It’s not a backdrop for the skating. For me, it’s a main element of the show.”

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5 cool things to know before seeing 'Crystal'

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Matt Beard, Cirque du Soleil

Canadian Kurt Browning skates in the World Professional Figure Skating Championships in 1998 in Washington, D.C.

Olympic talent helped create the show: The skating sequences in "Crystal" come with an Olympic pedigree. The show's senior designer is Kurt Browning, a four-time world champion skater who represented Canada in three Olympics, and carried the nation's flag in the opening ceremonies of the 1994 games in Lillehammer, Norway. Additional sequences in "Crystal" were designed by Benjamin Agosto, an American ice dancer who won a silver medal at the 2006 games in Turin, Italy.

Winter comes to the arena: The set design for "Crystal" is meant to evoke frozen ponds and a town square in wintertime. Projections deepen the illusion, turning the ice rink into a playground, an office building, and even a super-sized pinball machine.

Not your standard Cirque costumes: The costumes in "Crystal" were specially created with artists' safety in mind. Some costumes have special padding and Kevlar gloves to protect shoulders, arms and hands from razor-sharp skate blades. Other costumes are water-resistant and non-absorbent.

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Matt Beard, Cirque du Soleil

More than just skates: Ice skates aren't the only footwear used in the show. To make acrobatic acts work on ice, some performers wear special shoes that have small metal spikes on the soles to ensure stability.

"Hey, that song sounds familiar!": The score for "Crystal" was created by composer Maxim Lepage, and incorporates symphonic sounds, klezmer music, and folk melodies. And, in a first for Cirque, includes cover versions of well-known pop songs that were specially chosen to underscore the show's themes.

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A sneak peek

Here's a closer look at what you can expect to see in "Crystal."

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-- Grant Butler

gbutler@oregonian.com

503-221-8566; @grantbutler

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