The lighting rig supplied by Sonalyst for the U.K. arena tour of Strictly Come Dancing Live included more than 150 Robe moving lights, including the new ColorBeam 700E ATs. Mark Kenyon, LD for the Strictly Come Dancing TV series, also served as designer for the live show's lighting, assisted by programmer David Bishop and assistant LD Roger Williams. The touring console operator and lighting director is Alex Murphy, working on a grandMA2.
Sonalyst, the lighting supplier for the previous two Strictly Live tours, purchased 31 chrome-finished Robe ColorBeam 700E ATs for the tour, 28 of which are deployed around the perimeter of the dance floor. The chrome color was chosen for its ability to give a "televisual" feel to the live show, which features eight dancing couples and four judges, with votes coming from each performance's audience.
The ColorBeam 700E ATs are used for large beam and gobo looks and for producing light curtain effects when tipped at 45 degrees across the dance floor, along with TV-style crosses in the air. They are also used to light the seven mirror balls flown above the stage, including the largest at the center.
Kenyon credited the ColorBeams for being "spectacularly bright," with a nice parallel beam, capable of "amazing" effects. Alex Murphy called the units "fantastic" and was particularly impressed with their speed, especially when flipping through colors and gobos.
Sonalyst's Rory Madden noted that, "from a rental company standpoint, we have already invested heavily in Robe moving lights, which have proved rock-solid reliable as a rental item. Robe is continually developing new and interesting fixtures, and I jumped at the chance of buying some of their latest technology."
Along with the ColorBeams, the rig includes 112 Robe ColorSpot and ColorWash 2500E ATs positioned on the 12 truss sections above the dance floor. These truss sections intersect with one long truss, forming the "spine" which runs down the center.
The ColorSpot and ColorWash fixtures are used throughout the three-hour show, providing color washes and gobo texturing on the dance floor, including a set of gobos that Kenyon custom-designed for the show.
The output from these fixtures also needed to contend with a footcandle-hungry adversary: the polished wooden floor. The lighting design called for 14 Robe ColorWash 700E ATs around the band stage area, with six ColorSpot 700E ATs used for backlighting the musicians.
One of the main challenges that Kenyon needed to face was scale. The arenas for the live show were often several times as large as the TV studio's stage, and with audiences of up to 16,000.
I-Mag helped bridge the distance between dancers and their fans. The nightly tour was captured by seven cameras directed by Richard Ellis and beamed onto two I-Mag screens, with Robe's 2500 Series fixtures providing the boost in total illumination needed to fill the bigger arena stages with light.
The six-week sold-out tour was produced by Phil McIntyre Entertainment and production managed by Andy Colby.
