Dancers - visit the British Harlequin stand at MOVE-IT next week

With less than a week to MOVE-IT 2009 at Olympia, London - 6th to 8th March, British Harlequin are busy making final preparations for the event. Harlequin dance floors will be installed on the main stage, in the Harlequin Masterclass Studio and on some exhibitor stands including the British Harlequin stand where visitors to the show will be invited to experience for themselves the benefit of dancing on a Harlequin Liberty sprung floor. 

Our photo shows dancers Jade and Emma from Mandy Ellen Performing Arts, Maidstone performing on the Harlequin stand at the 2008 event.

 

News by e-mail from Harlequin

News today from British Harlequin will be landing in the e-mail in boxes of thousands of subscribers to the company's e-News service. The quarterly service aggregates 6 recent headline stories and pictures providing an easy and quick way to keep in touch and up to date for anyone involved with dance and in particular the safety and performance importance of using the right dance floor. Any interested person can subscribe to Harlequin's e-News service.  

Harlequin master class to debut at MOVE-IT

New to MOVE-IT - 6th~8th March 2009 at Olympia, London - is the Harlequin Masterclass Studio. Described by the organisers as "an exciting new feature for 2009 the Harlequin Masterclass Studio will host a range of advanced and professional level classes taught by some of the UK's premiere teachers and dance companies. The Harlequin Masterclass Studio is a dedicated, intimate space created especially for advanced and professional classes."

British Harlequin will also be exhibiting at MOVE-IT and will offer a similar sprung floor on their stand that is open for visitors to dance on.

Dancing in Kent features Harlequin news

The Dancing in Kent web site carries news from British Harlequin including a feature on the recently announced Irish Dance Floor Panel.

Health Secretary homes in on dance in fight on obesity

According to the BBC, Health Secretary Alan Johnson has been inspired by the popular success of Strictly Come Dancing to get the whole country dancing in the battle against increased obesity. Back in August we reported on another Government announcement that in response to the Dance Review of the importance of sprung floors for dance, in particular the benefits and well-being for the health and welfare of dancers new schools would be equipped with sprung floors. 

British Harlequin has produced a White Paper - The Facts About Sprung Floors for Dance - that can be downloaded from the Harlequin web site . This is based on an article published in Dancing Times and includes the views of leading experts.

Green Harlequin Reversible floor for dance film

The chances are that anyone attending the weekend of dance work presented by Southbank Centre Artist in Residence, Rafael Bonachela at The Royal Festival Hall will have seen a  film by dancer Theo Clinkard and film-maker Mariko Montpetit. The striking green Harlequin Reversible dance floor featured in the film evoked the open green space of a floodlit stadium providing a focal interest in the surrounding darkness. The intention being to create a vast, stark, empty space with the green floor seemingly hovering in a black void where Theo then embarks on performing the choreography. Described as " a film about the making of a dance", part documentary, it follows Theo Clinkard as " he embarks on creating a dance without choreography for the very first time"

Allegro dance floor for Coventry Performing Arts Service

West Midlands Dance report that "Coventry Performing Arts Service is touting the new dance studio they have for hire". The article reports that, " we now have a beautiful performing arts studio with a professional state of the art British Harlequin Allegro dance floor. The Allegro floor is the thickest roll-out dance floor available in the world. It is slip resistant and suitable for all types of dance and performance offering young and old the opportunity to work on a professional floor." Anyone looking to invest in a new dance floor should get hold of a copy of British Harlequin's free Guide by going online or calling 01892 514 888.

Floor for Irish dance

Harlequin Liberty Sprung Panels are remarkably versatile. The popular sprung floor is proving ideal for a variety of dance forms with the Irish Dance Panel being just the latest to owe its origin to Liberty. The history of the latest incarnation can be traced back to 2004 when Spanish flamenco star Maria Pages was looking for a floor that not only was right for dance but produced the right sound as well. Harlequin recognised that Irish dancers face many of the same issues as flamenco and other forms of percussive dance and adapted the Liberty system into  1 x 1 metre panels specifically for Irish dancers to use as practise floors.  The dance surface is Harlequin Cascade, the heavy-duty non-slip vinyl preferred by Riverdance and used in their performances for many years.

Harlequin Fiesta floor ideal for ballroom

Just before Christmas the Peter Jones store in Chelsea staged a Strictly Dance evening which featured Tom Chambers and Camilla Dallerup just a few days before winning the highly popular Strictly Come Dancing prize on BBC Television. An estimated two thousand  evening shoppers thronged the galleries to watch, but few probably gave any thought as to how the hard terrazzo surface of the ground floor had been transformed into a ballroom. That in fact was the challenge for Rain Communications UK who put on the event for Peter Jones. Spokesman Neil Cassley of Rain Communications said, "Harlequin added the perfect sheen to our event delivering a bespoke ballroom dance floor in remarkable time." For the 'one night only' event Harlequin had brought in portable Liberty Sprung Panels that link together to create a professional quality sprung floor. The Harlequin Fiesta dance surface has an oak stripped pattern and is proving popular for social dancing but also stands up to the rigours of  percussive dance such as tap and Irish. Later in the evening the general public were able to take to the floor themselves. For Harlequin creating professional quality dance floors for special events is all in a days work.

Photo credit: Jonathan Hordle/Rex Feature.