HOLIDAY ON ICE: Energia 2009 / TPi Magazine

TOTAL PRODUCTION INTERNATIONAL

TOTAL PRODUCTION INTERNATIONAL

WWW.TPiMAGAZINE.COM JANUARY 2009

ISSUE 113

LIVE EVENT DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY • JANUARY 2009 • ISSUE 113

ICE ON FIRE

CYBERHOISTS BRING THE SET ALIVE FOR NEW HOLIDAY ON ICE SHOW, ENERGIA

DEEP JOY

TPi AWARDS 2009: THE NOMINATIONS • OGDENS’ NUT GONE FLAKE: LIVE THE FEELING • EXTREME AT THE ASTORIA • LIGHTING CONSOLES FEATURE

ON THE ROAD: Energia

32 • TPi JANUARY 09

ON THE ROAD: Energia

HOLIDAY ON ICE: ENERGIA

MARK CUNNINGHAM REPORTS FROM DORTMUND ON THE LATEST TOURING ICE SPECTACULAR FROM THE STAGE ENTERTAINMENT GROUP

If H.G. Wells was still alive and managed to tamper with a U2 show, it might look something like Energia, the latest touring production from Holiday On Ice which premièred on November 6 in Hamburg.

Coming a year after our last Holiday On Ice experience — at the première of its last epic, Elements — I once again had the opportunity of sampling this unique brand of entertainment during Energia’s successful run at Dortmund’s Westfalenhalle.

With Strictly Come Dancing fever at an all-time high and fuelling the imagination, this combination of ice skating precision, dance and scenic splendour demanded to be seen in a new light.

Created by choreographer and former champion skater Kevin Cottam, Energia is an interactive show that takes the audience on an epic voyage through time and space. It seeks to demonstrate how the universe connects through energy, and begins with two comic clowns, Ein and Stein, pondering on the awakening of light energy, and the elements, on Mother Earth. The magical journey climaxes with a Bollywood-style finale.

The set, designed by Bart Clement (TPi’s 2008 Set Designer of the Year, and nominated once again for 2009), depicts an abstract version of the universe — above the ice is a planet which, not unlike Saturn, is orbited by a cosmic belt and moons.

The graceful, three-dimensional movement of this astronomic creation is enabled by a system of computer-controlled Cyberhoists, while the central sphere/planet acts as both a surface for LED video tiles and a device for accommodating members of the cast, who are revealed when the planet’s doors are opened for the finale.

My visit began with a warm welcome from Hans Staal, Holiday On Ice’s director of production & operations, and his assistant, Yong-Sim Kroese. Before being taken on a backstage tour where I gained insight into the creative and technical design of Energia, Staal shared some of his thoughts about what truly makes this organisation tick.

“People told me it would be impossible to tour with this three-dimensional set, but we proved it could be done. And that’s down to teamwork and a lot of self-belief....” Hans Staal TPi JANUARY 09 • 33

ON THE ROAD: Energia

Below, top row: Hans Staal; Bogdan Lewko; Bart Clement; Luc Peumans; Hans Willems; Leo Van Den Boogaard; Kiki Venhuizen. Bottom row: Van Den Boogaard with sound operators Ahmed El Sayed and Martin Weber; Video content creator Koen Vanlancker; Lewko gives direction during set-up for the Hamburg premiere.

Holiday On Ice (HOI) constantly works to increase its shows’ intimacy by bringing the performers closer to the (average 5,000) audience, without relying on video I-Mag. “We start with a swimming pool and banks of seats, and from there it’s about finding the best solutions to turn a ‘cold’ environment into a warmer theatre atmosphere as part of an interactive experience,” explained Staal, who joined HOI in 2005.

“The fun has to start with that interaction between the cast and the audience, so we strive to involve the audience as much as possible.

For me, that’s the most interesting part of any production. Step by step, we learn how to improve on this process with every new show.”

Staal’s words might give the impression that HOI is a fledgling organisation. It’s not.

The company has a colourful, 65-year history

34 • TPi JANUARY 09

filled with countless milestones, not to mention significant changes of ownership.

Since its management was taken over by Joop van den Ende’s Amsterdam-headquartered Stage Entertainment Group, 10 years ago, the goal has been to increase the production values of its shows to the point where they now rival many of the world’s leading rock’n’roll tours and theatre presentations.

At 52, with 34 years’ experience in showbusiness, Staal also has numerous achievements to his name, including such theatre productions as Noises Off and The Diary Of Anne Frank, but he’s quick to humbly point out that “the older I become, the less I appear to know... I never tire of learning new ways to add expression to our productions and deliver that elusive theatre magic. That’s what it’s all about.”

Does HOI follow a standard formula for bringing each new show idea to fruition? “We have a kind of a format, yes, and this usually starts with a ‘one-liner’ brief that clearly states what we want to achieve. Then we throw away the ballast and work without fear of budgets, so that imagination isn’t compromised.

“Of course, later on we may have to trim some of these ideas in order to preserve some economic sense, but we’ll try to adopt a ‘sky’s the limit’ attitude as much as we can before we start looking at the physical practicalities of building the show. In my opinion, a good producer will find solutions to fulfil the wishes of the creative team and fix all the problems that might get in the way... which normally involve money!

“That’s not to say I never have fights with the creatives but that’s all part of the process.

ON THE ROAD: Energia

RISING UP THROUGH THE RANKS

Ukranian tour manager Irina Grygor (pictured above, left, with Yong-Sim Kroese) currently looks after the coordination of all of Energia’s touring departments — from logistics and technical, to publicity and catering — as well as settling accounts with venues.

She has been with HOI for nine years and is a good example of how someone can rise through the organisation’s ranks.

“In my first year, I worked as a dresser and follow spot operator, and was really just happy to have a job with Holiday On Ice,” said Grygor. “I then took a secretarial position in the touring office, followed by accounting, before I made the move into tour management three years ago.”

Among the most impressive sights backstage are the smart-looking containerised production offices that are trucked from venue to venue, and kept smelling sweet, thanks to Miss Grygor’s collection of fragrant candles. No dull Portacabins for this company! “This is all part of the rationalisation issues we have with our transport because the offices double as storage space for costumes,” she explained.

“Another very practical side of this initiative is that rather than move around a lot of important documentation between venues, I have a permanent set of filing cabinets and shelves that house everything, so it all remains in one place — almost as if I’m working back at head office. It’s very comfortable. In fact, the only improvement would be a fold-down bed for those nights when I’m too tired to go back to the hotel!”

36 • TPi JANUARY 09

Thankfully, I work with people who are both highly imaginative and appreciative of certain realities. With Energia, people told me it would be impossible to tour with this threedimensional set, but — to their delight — we proved it could be done. And that’s down to teamwork and a lot of self-belief.”

CULTIVATING A large proportion of the touring equipment is owned by HOI, with the remaining lighting and sound kit hired from Flashlight APR in Belgium. This has turned out to be standard practice over recent years, as productions have been upscaled.

“With an organisation like ours where we can tour the same show for 90 weeks, there comes a point where you have to purchase equipment to form a core inventory. At the same time, we don’t want to over-stock, so we make a good deal with a rental provider so that our equipment is complemented by crucial extras.

“It makes sense for Flashlight to invest in 150 lighting fixtures and meet our specification because they can then rent these out to summer festivals, when it’s out of season for us.

“One of the other reasons for us not being 100% self-sufficient is that by involving the likes of Flashlight, we are able to absorb a lot of knowledge through working with their crews [four Flashlight crew are touring with Energia]. It prevents us from being too insular; it helps us see things from different perspectives and improve our efficiency, which can only be healthy.”

The two parties have begun a more formal education programme that sees HOI technical employees gain more rounded practical training in lighting, sound and general production techniques, based on Flashlight’s wide pool of experience.

This ‘grooming’ also extends to the company’s artistic side. Last June, HOI opened

its Skating Academy for Performing Artists in Utrecht. Around eight members of the Energia cast, including principal pair Nina Ulanova and Michal Zych, appear in the show as a direct result of graduating from the Academy and impressing casting director Jayne Hamelink.

“Finding skaters and performers is one thing, but finding people who can do both is not so easy. So we’ve taken it upon ourselves to cultivate a new generation of talent,” commented Staal.

SET DESIGN Technically, Energia is the most difficult show every produced by HOI. Although the company has often incorporated flying and levitation into its performance designs, it has never before attempted to include actual movement of the set, as it is currently doing with Energia’s iconic six-tonne, 22m diameter, Saturn-inspired outer ring.

“We are very proud of what we’ve achieved here,” said technical director Bogdan Lewko, who works alongside technical manager Tomasz Kadlubek and supervisor Stano Kusik.

“Everything above the ice rink is moving on a total of 20 one-tonne Cyberhoists, operated

by Erik Gielen of Flashlight. The clowns, Ein and Stein, are also moved by Cyberhoist motion control when they sit on their ‘porch swing’ platforms to watch the action.”

Working from an original design concept

by Bart Clement, Hans Willems of WiCreations was back on board as a project manager to create some specialist technical designs and liaise with Wakefield, UK-based LiteStructures on its construction of the main overhead ring.

This 22m diameter ring is an aluminium structure that incorporates a 1.1m wide skating track with a Teflon top which allows the clowns to use it as part of their act. It also incorporates 2m wide inflatable perimeters on each side, and 24 Vari*Lite VL2500 moving heads. Inside, there is a smaller diameter flying

ON THE ROAD: Energia

ring — containing eight VL3500s — that moves and tilts in the same way as the larger, outer ring.

“LiteStructures are a fantastic company to work with,” said Lewko. “It was important to accommodate the weight of fixtures, as well as the dynamic loads of the clowns who skate above the ice. LiteStructures took the responsibility of ensuring the safety, reliability and user-friendliness of the structure, and did a brilliant job.”

In the middle of the set is a video ball consisting of over 15,000 pixels. At various points in the show, the video ball even accommodates members of the cast. It has six leaves or ‘doors’ which open out to reveal the cast members — in a similar vein to U2’s mirrortiled Lemon from PopMart (1997).

The inside mechanism for the opening of the leaves was manufactured by Michael Henn of

38 • TPi JANUARY 09

German company Henn Project GmbH; the 4m diameter video ball is covered with aluminium LED rings constructed by WiCreations and the LEDs were mounted by XL Video.

There are also smaller (static and nonopening) video balls of 1.5m and 2.5m diameter, constructed by WiCreations) with the same elements that feature as flown ‘satellites’ within the set.

“Time was our biggest challenge on this show, even more so than usual,” said Lewko.

“We started work on design visuals in May and for some time it all seemed as if everything would go to schedule. But new design elements and amendments to previous ideas started to come into play, all of which slowed down the various departments.

‘Consequently, everything was a massive rush in the last few weeks leading up to the opening night. It was incredibly stressful for

the crew, not least myself. It’s not the most ideal way to work but the results speak for themselves.”

Initially budgeting for six trucks, the tour ended up with eight, such was the escalation of the production design. One of the things that increases the load is ‘venue enhancement’, as Lewko explained.

“We’re travelling with what is effectively a mobile museum, and that obviously impacts on trucking to some extent. In the lobby of each venue there are displays that chart the 65-year history of Holiday On Ice, because we feel it’s important to give our audiences an idea of the scale of our development through the years.”

ENERGISED VISUALS This is a heavily-programmed show that runs on SMPTE time code to synchronise all departments. Designed by Luc Peumans and

ON THE ROAD: Energia

programmed by Paco Mispelters, both of Painting With Light, the light show is operated Flashlight’s Jo Vaes from a grandMA full size console, Peumans’ now-regular choice.

“It offers great flexibility and very solid networking for this kind of show,” said the LD. “It’s mostly a recall job for Jo although there are a few manual lighting cues, such as the follow spots, and some others that are dependent on the dynamics of each performance.”

The diversity of the lighting elements is quite astounding, going so far as to include battery-powered RGB LED units (custom-made

by Belgium’s Lux Lumen) in the hats worn by the two clowns. These are operated via wireless DMX. The same type of LED unit also internally lights the inflatable overhead ring, and is featured in some of the costumes worn by the cast... for an impressive ‘wow’ effect.

Further small LED lights from Lux Lumen — 288 in total — line the outside of both rings, giving the appearance of tiny MR16 light bulbs.

These provide a twinkling outline (in white) and are controlled on their own separate channel.

A busy array of Robert Juliat Ivanhoe follow spots are fitted with Wybron CXi colour changers which Peumans likes as “they enable subtle mixes from light cyan to full cyan, for example, which work so well on the ice.”

Peumans continues to favour Vari*Lites as his workhorse moving lights for HOI, and has added 26 VL3500 Washes to his arsenal for Energia. “Twelve of them are positioned around the ice for front washes. They are very powerful and you can choose different lens combinations for them, such as fresnel/fresnel or clear lens/fresnel, which allows a bigger beam like a Syncrolite effect.

“This can be used for lighting specials on

TPi JANUARY 09 • 39

ON THE ROAD: Energia

he said. “The fact that you can control speed of movement so accurately and flexibly means that it’s possible to bring elegant life to a set structure such as ours.”

Conceived by Koen Vanlancker and Belgiumbased Creatures, the video content is stored on a D3 media server from UVA and it is cued from the grandMA desk via ArtNet. Pyro effects, such as the fire sequence featured on this month’s front cover, were designed and implemented by Germany’s LMP Pyrotechnik. Other visual contributors include Showtex (drapes), Castrop (set fabrication) and Alumifax (fog effects).

the ice or solo skater positions. The set often looks like a big UFO and the VL3500s are ideal for projecting big beams out from the ring to enhance the overall look.”

A total of 76 VL2500 Spots provide gobo textures on the ice, and other units in the spec include 24 Studio Colors for floor and side lighting on the outside of the ice, Martin Atomic strobes for the ‘big bang of the universe’ in the opening of the first act, and Look Solutions smoke machines. There are also discreet PAR cans inside the video ball.

Peumans was one of the first users of the Cyberhoist system when he was involved in the Belgian pre-selection show for the 2001 Eurovision Song Contest and later as the LD for Flemish superstars Clouseau. “Cyberhoist has made such a huge difference to show design,”

40 • TPi JANUARY 09

SOUND Energia shares much of the detail of its audio specification with that of the previous Elements show, although sound designer Leo Van Den Boogaard was quick to indicate that the use of the components differs greatly.

Generally speaking, half of the sound equipment on tour is rented from Flashlight APR (mostly the loudspeaker systems), while the remainder (FOH control, mics and playback devices) is owned by Holiday On Ice Productions.

Flashlight APR provided a punchy Martin Audio W8LM ‘Mini’ line array system which is powered by Martin’s own amplifiers and processed by a bank of XTA units. Van Den Boogaard fell in love with the system on the Elements/Spirit and Mystery shows. “I was very pleased with it and haven’t looked back since,” he said. “For the size of box, it gives an incredible amount of power and coverage. We have six main clusters around the centre and they cover the whole audience perfectly.”

HOI also owns the Camco-powered Nexo Geo S loudspeaker system that is used here for powerful surround sound and specific spot effects around the auditorium. Around 30 Geo S cabinets (with subs) are deployed across six main clusters, and also to provide fill-in for the skaters. Sound effects are also transmitted via Synco subs (from Flashlight) while Synco SR5s provide monitoring on the ice rink.

Said Van Den Boogaard: “We are careful not to have too much monitor level as it can

interfere with the general house sound, so it’s kept quite subtle.”

All EQ, dynamics and effects processing is handled within the Yamaha PM5D digital desk, which provides for a very compact audio control ‘cockpit’ to one side of the lower audience seating. “The PM5D is great to work with,” said Van Den Boogaard. “We used a Digidesign Venue on the Spirit show which worked fine, but the PM5D is a different approach. Both have their place although I’m pleased we chose the Yamaha option for this production.”

As with the lighting and video, the majority of sound is on playback and it’s the audio department that feeds the time code to the other departments.

The music — ranging from symphonic to salsa — was especially composed and arranged by the Canadian team of René Dupéré, Ella Louise Allaire and Martin Lord Ferguson, all of whom have a proven background with Cirque Du Soleil. Their score was recorded at Air Studios in Hampstead, north London with the orchestra and choir conducted by Nick Ingman.

The finished recordings were transferred in multitrack form to a Tascam MX2424 hard disk machine which are mixed live on the PM5D by sound operators Martin Weber and Ahmed El Sayed to preserve a live dynamic every show.

“There are 16 tracks, including two orchestra tracks and two (sometimes four) tracks of vocals, that are all mixed on the spot, so no two shows will sound exactly the same,” explained Van Den Boogaard.

“Fader positions will change according to whatever movement is happening on the ice at any time. Obviously, this is a wellchoreographed show but there is still some scope for free expression and certainly the sound aspects are not as simple as people might expect.”

The main exception to playback is the live voices of clowns Ein and Stein who tell jokes throughout the performance. They use fleshcoloured Countryman Isomax E6 Omni Earset mics in conjunction with Sennheiser SK50 bodypacks and EH 3032 receivers.

“They’re very durable microphones,” commented Van Den Boogaard. “They have to

ON THE ROAD: Energia

be — Ein and Stein spend a lot of time rolling and jumping around the ice and through the audience!” The clowns monitor themselves via Sennheiser’s ‘classic’ EK 3053-U IEM receiver packs and SR 3056 transmitters.

EXCITEMENT Following its first run of shows in Germany, Energia is now playing across France until May, while Mystery — choreographed by Olympic figure skating legend Robin Cousins MBE — will be touring UK venues (Brighton, Peterborough, Cardiff and Exeter) in January and February.

Interestingly, London is currently absent from the schedule, as Hans Staal explained: “It

42 • TPi JANUARY 09

can be prohibitively expensive to go to London unless it’s for a six to eight week residency. It is possible to go for shorter periods — the main problem, however, is that the huge cost of things like publicity wouldn’t make it profitable.”

With public interest in all forms of dance and choreography fuelled by the popularity of TV’s Strictly Come Dancing, there is a strong possibility that new streams of ticket buyers will be encouraged to check out the visual splendour of HOI’s productions over the next year... and Energia would serve as a perfect introduction.

Staal commented: “Our aim is to deliver the very best ice shows in the world and we love

rising to new challenges. One thing’s for sure: the future holds a lot of excitement for us.”

TPi Photography by Joris Jan Bos & Mark Cunningham www.holidayonice.com

SEE LIVE FOOTAGE OF ENERGIA ONLINE NOW AT WWW.TPiMAGAZINE.COM