Dream time, with the greatest of ease

The tale of a dream will be told by jugglers and trapeze artists, contortionists, aerialists and a man high overhead named Angel, as Cirque Dreams arrives at the Cerritos Center for eight performances beginning Friday.

It is Neil Goldberg’s largest production, three years in the making.

The 19-person cast will wear more than 300 costumes, all treated with ultraviolet paint to glow in black light and disappear in darkness, part of the cirque’s mysterious play on time and space, part of a tradition dating back to Jules Verne’s Cirque Municipal in the 1800s.

“It’s about what really happens from the time you close your eyes at night till the time you open them in the morning,” says Goldberg. “It’s about what happens when your eyes close and you’re taken to total darkness and things happen in your mind.”

The performers are groomed in Goldberg’s Dream Studios in Fort Lauderdale. Three shows are currently being performed; a fourth soon will open.

It’s a diverse group. Performers come from Mongolia, Russia, Germany and the Ukraine.

Aerialist Angel Fraguada is one of two Americans in the show. Unlike many performers from other countries, Fraguada, 25, had no formal training as a child. He grew up tumbling on the concrete of Yonkers.

Fraguada, who grew up in foster homes in New York and New Jersey, says he finally has found a home and family in Cirque Dreams.

He is married to fellow cast member Solongo Tsogtbaata, a contortionist from Mongolia, where girls as young as 2 years old begin training.

“This is the only stable life I’ve had,” he says. “People here treat me like I’m their son. It’s a family I’ve never had.”

To perform in Cirque Dreams is his own dream come true, he says, and just as he did as a child, Fraguada feels freedom in the movement of his body, moving through time and space and imagination.

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Cirque Dreams

Where: Cerritos Center, 12700 Center Court Drive, Cerritos

When: Friday, 8 p.m.; Saturday, 2 and 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2 and 7 p.m.; Monday, 8 p.m.; Tuesday, 2 and

8 p.m.

Price: $30/$45/$55; $20 for children 12 and younger. (Performance recommended for children 6 and older.)

Info: (800) 300-4345, (562) 916-

8500 or www.cerritoscenter.com