Sheffield visit by Cirque du Soleil show Crystal is close to home for performer Emily McCarthy

Emily McCarthy is an acrobatic flyer with Cirque in their new show Crystal, which is calling in at the FlyDSA Arena in Sheffield on March 6 to 8 on the British leg of its current tour.

Emily started gymnastics at the age of six, before moving into acrobatic gymnastics at a club in the Wakefield area, near her home in Tingley. She also made the GB acrobatic team.

Emily saw her first Cirque du Soleil show, Quidam, on a family holiday in Alicante.

She says: “I had a friend from gym club who was in that show. She asked me, my mum and friend if we’d be interested in watching the show. I just fell in love.”

“When I was 16 I started and I’ve been away with them ever since.”

She has been around the world with this show and had to learn some amazing new skills. Crystal is the first-ever Cirque ice show.

Emily says: “I have an act with a group of people, Hand to Hand Trapeze. I perform as Crystal and it’s a blend of trapeze, acrobatics and skating.

“It’s a pretty new discipline. What's so special about this is it’s actually performed on ice. There’s myself playing Crystal and a group of 10 boys.

“Crystal’s fighting with the boys and going up on the trapeze. She’s drawn back to the acrobats, then they take me on to the ice.

“It’s a really exciting number that I’m really proud of.”

“Before Crystal I’d never done trapeze. That was a challenge to learn a new discipline I’d never done.

“To learn it over ice was quite a big factor. That was very, very interesting. I absolutely love, it so I'm very happy. I’d also never really skated before.”

Emily had to take skating lessons at Bradford Ice Arena to get ready for the show.

She says: “The entire stage is ice. All the backstage is ice as well. We also have a room with mats where we can train and warm up and a gym area.

“There’s a really good area where you can set up if you don’t mind the cold!”

Emotional return to Sheffield for real Jamie

That gives an idea of how huge and intricate these shows are.

Emily says that Crystal was created “probably because it’s never been done before”.

She says: “Ice shows are so popular. To blend the two was just a genius idea and everything just flows from there.

“It’s really impressive to see the two worlds come together with all the sets and costumes and the technical side of it.”

“It’s huge. I’ve been doing it for eight years and it still amazes me when I think about it.”

Before Crystal, Emily was an acrobat in the Cirque show Varekai for five years. She says: “After five years I was ready for a new challenge.

“I left the show and got the call to see if I would work on Crystal. It was nice to be off the road for a little bit.”

Emily began work on the show in June 2017 and has already been to the US, Canada, Mexico, Russia, Poland and Belarus on this tour.

It’s nice to be close to home for a change. “I’ve got a big list of family and friends coming. Hopefully they’re going to be cheering for us all.”

Cirque du Soleil CRYSTAL performs at Sheffield FlyDSA Arena from March 6-8 before embarking on its UK arena tour. Tickets available at www.cirquedusoleil.com/crystal