Martin and Kave create a “Freestyle” atmosphere at MOVE IT.

Martin and Kave create a “Freestyle” atmosphere at MOVE IT.

March 25, 2009

Move It is the UK's largest live dancing experience and from 5th to 8th March this year at Olympia, it attracted an audience of around 20000 dance enthusiasts who experienced a mix of activities; live performances, classes, seminars and a trade fair.

One of the most popular features of the show was the new MAOAM Freestyle stage. It was an area the organisers created to allow dancers visiting the show, to show off their dance skills to a crowd.

Kave Theatre Services were contracted to supply all lighting, sound and crew requirements for this stage. Martin lighting was used for this, which included new MAC 575 Kryptons, MAC 2000 Profiles and MAC 600s.

The brief from organisers was to create an area that allowed maximum flexibility with lighting and sound, as there were no rehearsals or even any idea of the genre that was going to be performed. The performers just showed up with an iPod or CD with their chosen track and take to the stage.

Dave Singleton, KAVE Project Manager explained, “I designed the rig with the intention of creating a big impact. The Freestyle Stage sat right in the middle of all the exhibitors and needed a certain amount of eye candy to attract the dancers to sign up for a slot to perform. At the same time I needed it to be completely flexible as we had no idea what performances were coming to the stage until they were introduced to the stage. By incorporating our Martin heads into the design I was confident we would have a visually stimulating design that could easily battle against the intense sunlight, which dominates Olympia.”

Kave only stock Martin Moving Lights due to their reliability and fast servicing ability. Due to the sunlight, the rig needed to consist of fixtures that would easily project a visible gobo onto the stage etc.

Dave was enthusiastic about the lighting, “The brightness of the MAC 575 Krypton was very impressive, with fantastic mid air effects. The optics are something I'd expect to see in a product double the price."
“The MAC 2000 Profile is a powerful light source for cutting through the sunlight.” “The MAC 600s are the workhorses, there is nothing better for providing the main colour washes for the stage.”

Having audience on all 4 sides, the rig was a 7m x 7m Box truss with 2 x MAC 600 and 2 x MAC 2000 Profiles placed on each side which took care of the colour washes and gobo work on the stage. The MAC 575 Krypton’s were placed around the rig and were primarily used as eye candy and for attracting people to the area.

Dave was impressed with the new MAC 575 Kryptons. “The MAC 575 Krypton’s have really made an impression on me. We had no time to play with the fixtures before taking them out on this job. We literally opened the boxes to commission them and do all the bits to make them hirable before packing them on the truck. The whole rig was on and working for 14 hours a day and there wasn’t a single failure on any of the kit.”

Dave would like to thank several people for making the Freestyle stage a success including, Freelance LD Simon Horn, who programmed the Freestyle stage lighting rig and Michael Mackie-Clark, KAVE Sales Manager who programmed KAVE’s stand, and not to forget the hard working crew: Steve Brown, Adam Cobb, Steve Hawkins, Ian Bartlett,  Stuart Savidge and Ben Lawrence.

Dave comments further, “I’ve been designing shows for years now. I’ve always been a Martin fan right from the word go. Through KAVE I handle anything from basic school shows through to entirely Moving Light rigs of up to 100 heads.”

All the products used at Move It are available from KAVE's rapidly expanding hire stock. KAVE are expanding at such a rate, that from Monday 16th March they will have moved larger premises.


END

For more information please contact Emma Thorpe, Marketing Co-ordinator:
Telephone: +44 (0)1622 760930; Fax: +44 (0)1622 755447
E-mail: emma.thorpe@martin.dk; Internet: www.martinpro.co.uk

Kave Theatre Services
Units 1 & 2
55 Victoria Road
Burgess Hill
RH15 9LH
Tel: 01444 245500


Freestyle Stage:
8 * Martin Mac 2000 Profile
8 * Martin Mac 600
8 * Martin Mac 575 Krypton

KAVE’s Stand:
7 * Martin Mac 250 Entours
3 * Martin Mac 250 Washes
2 * Martin smartMac (doing custom Kave gobo’s)

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