ELP light ‘geodesic’ dome for new TV dance competition

Got to Dance is a new dance competition for broadcast on Sky1 in HD in early 2010.

Hosted by Davina McCall, it kicked off with a series of nationwide auditions for dancers of all styles, combinations and ages.

The contest began with mass participation ‘dancing in the streets’ routines in major cities across the UK. The most entertaining dancers were then invited into the Dance Dome to audition for the judges, who then selected the very best to compete in live semi final shows.

The unique aspect of this production is the mobile ‘geodesic’ dome in which the dance auditions took place. Element Domes created the 90ft temporary structure which travelled to city centre locations across the UK. These daytime auditions required the use of interior lighting and projection and so Element offered a blackout fabric to enclose the dome.

LD Mark Kenyon and the lighting team from ELP were then able to install a lighting rig consisting of 26 x VL 1000s and an array of LED fixtures including Thomas Pixel Pars, Chromaflood 200TCs and, Chroma Pars. 25 chrome floor cans encircled a dance floor stage in the middle of the Dome.

“It didn’t matter if they were going to dance ballroom, break dance or ballet” says lighting designer Mark Kenyon. “My design gave them all equal illumination and equal helpings of lighting effects.”

Mark explained that just as with other similar audition shows he’s lit (e.g. Britain’s Got Talent and X-Factor) “…It’s impossible to digitally programme a ‘look’ as you really don’t have any clue what the acts will deliver on stage, how many of them there will be or even what tempo of song they will perform”

Mark’s solution was to fly three lengths of silver mini beam trussing. Two lengths above the dance floor stage with generics including Source 4 profiles, par cans and an assortment of Arri 1K and 2K fresnels. And one length of truss above the judge’s desk with all the moving lights. These automated key lights provided convenient auto-focusing, and could be quickly adjusted as required.

Over the dance floor area the assortment of par cans, fresnels and Source 4 profiles provided a vibrant but uniform look so that all the contestants had the same equal coverage across the stage.

Pixel pars were used to provide a effervescent colour wash across the inside of the Dome and Catalyst driven projection created moving star-like shapes around the circumference of the structure to tie in with the show’s branding. Tom Sutherland operated the lighting desk and Catalyst systems.

The set was designed by Chris Webster and centred on a ‘star’ theme for the dance floor and the judge’s desk. The object of the competition was for contestants to collect three gold starts from the judges to progress to the next round. Chris designed the judge’s desk with star shaped LED panels made by German firm Schnick-Schnack-Systems. The backdrop was made up of a string of ELPs Mac LC Video panels.

LD Mark Kenyon commented on the benefits of having such an experienced ELP team alongside when staging this kind of production in a new environment. “It’s the first time a TV programme like this has been shot in a temporary dome structure and having crew chief Joe Sherno alongside and his excellent team makes it less of a daunting challenge. Not only did they overcome the potential rigging difficulties presented by the Dome’s shape but all the various sites that we visited on our UK tour had no power or technical infrastructure. So we had to start from the ground up every time”

ELP’s 400KW twinset generator provided site power for the production village at locations throughout the UK, In addition to the main Dome structure this included powering up two smaller interconnecting domes which provided hospitality and changing room facilities for performers, an SIS OB scanner, various production offices and the catering facilities.