The sky is falling at the Cirque du Soleil's production of "Dralion."

The show, currently running next to the Queen Mary in Long Beach, features a mysterious eight-ton ring 50 feet above the stage that seems to randomly drop things, whether it be performers, long satin ropes, juggling balls, or even the words of the welcome announcement before the show: "Please turn off all cell phones and pagers."

As objects fall from above, performers come from below, from the sides, and even from behind the audience. The elaborate sets and costumes further reinforce the Cirque du Soleil motto, "We Reinvent the Circus."

"In terms of costume, lighting, stage design and music, if you take the skeleton of something and dress it with your own stuff, the structure stays the same but with a different atmosphere," said Christian Touchette, the show's prop master.

While Touchette could be talking just about the reinvention of the circus, he is also talking about the fact that "Dralion" (a conjunction of "dragon" and "lion"), seeks to celebrate the traditional circus arts of the Chinese.

To do so, "Dralion" features 37 performers from a Chinese circus troop, doing traditional acrobatics with the Cirque du Soleil design as the clothing.

Featured in the show are many of the manned dragon costumes that one sees during Chinese New Year. The basic concept of the show and the four elements (fire, earth, water and air), which are represented by four colors (red, ochre, green and blue, respectively), come from an idea in the ancient Chinese text, the I Ching.

This is the first time that the Quebec-headquartered Cirque has included another troop within its own, although its previous productions have featured people from over 40 countries. The large number of Chinese performers can sometimes lead to culture clash behind the scenes.

"It's been a reality to learn to deal with people from communist China, because we're free. I can do whatever I want," said Touchette, who says he prefers to hang out with the clowns of the show.

Translators are needed for fluid communication, although some of the Europeans have learned Chinese and some of the Chinese have improved their English, which is the main language of the production. The 14 nationalities represented in "Dralion" can create a bit of conflict, but it has been a learning process for Touchette.

"We had to learn the difference (between translator and interpreter)," Touchette said. "Sometimes (the Chinese performers) will interpret what you say in their own culture so it's going to make sense. If you have a translator, you're just going to translate the words and it's not going to make sense at the end."

Coming straight from Houston, where ongoing construction made for a dirty and noisy site, the Queen Mary location provides more comfort. Large semi trucks actually transported the entire production, which includes a 2,551-seat tent, over 200 costumes, eating facilities, offices and, of course, the eight-ton ring.

Supervising the on-site production is tour manager Rob MacKenzie, a former rock musician from Newscastle, England. As a kind of father figure for the show, he has seen it grow since its opening in Montreal three years ago.

"The show is always evolving and, we'd like to think, always improving," MacKenzie said. "It's a very different show from what came out of the studio in Montreal. It's a lot lot better."

Indeed, Cirque du Soleil, which opened its first show almost 18 years ago, has evolved into a worldwide entity with tours 52 weeks a year on almost every continent. The elaborate eight-ton ring was unthinkable in 1984, but now it has become a symbol of the circus that not only reinvents the circus, but also reinvents itself.

"The shows in Vegas are huge multi-million-dollar productions with really incredible engineering aspects, quite a lot of automation, and moving scenery. It's a lot of money, but nothing comes cheap these days. We get complaints that our tickets are expensive, but it all comes at a cost," MacKenzie said.