British Harlequin recently installed Harlequin WoodSpring™ sprung floors with Harlequin Studio™ vinyl dance surfaces in all the dance and performance studios for Northern Ballet’s new building in Leeds.
Talking to British Harlequin, Andy Waddington, Head of Technical Services stressed the importance of sprung floors that benefit not just ballet dancers, but dancers of all styles and age groups that use their facility. When the architects were appointed a Harlequin sprung floor was high on the priority list. "Harlequin is something I can trust and I know it is going to work", said Andy. He explained, "Northern Ballet has a long history with Harlequin; we’ve still got working floors that we bought in 2000! Harlequin means reliability. I’ve got confidence in their products and go back to them time and time again".
Andy continued, "With our long association with Harlequin, we couldn’t think of going anywhere else. WoodSpring just works. It’s perfect. The dancers really appreciate it; they know that they’re safe and they can bounce up and down for days and nothing’s going to go wrong. That’s piece of mind! The dancers know they’re getting a top quality floor; that it’s going to be right and that they’re not going to slip, fall over or hurt themselves. And I know the floor’s not going to fail; it delivers every time".
The full interview with Andy Waddington can be viewed on the Harlequin video channel and on their YouTube channel.
"I am very happy with the Harlequin floors in the building" . said John Slater, Technical Manager of Phoenix Dance Theatre. " I’m yet to find anything else that makes the dancers happy".
The Leeds based contemporary dance company, founded in 1981, is now sharing a purpose-built facility that includes studios equipped with Harlequin WoodSpring™ sprung floors and Harlequin Studio™ vinyl dance surfaces. Phoenix Dance Theatre effectively re-launched about three years ago with new dancers and new management, but retained the "amazing legacy for the quality of work". John continued, "We are a contemporary dance company and they dance not in ballet shoes but barefoot and in socks. It is difficult to find a floor that has the right amount of traction so they are not slipping around when they are in socks, yet allows them to move when they are barefoot and Harlequin seems to be the one they keep coming back to".
"For touring I have used Harlequin floors in the past and I am about to buy some more...the dancers and the rehearsal director won’t allow me to buy anything else! "
The interview with John Slater can now be viewed on the Harlequin YouTube channel or via the Harlequin video channel .
Thanking British Harlequin for its "generous support " Dr Emma Redding said, "over 100 delegates attended the Passion, Pathways and Potential in Dance symposium held at Trinity Laban." The symposium launched the findings of a three-year interdisciplinary research project into the development of dance talent among young people.
The largest project of its kind involved nearly 800 young dancers training at eight government-funded Centres for Advanced Training (CATs). The interdisciplinary research measured a wide range of characteristics related to dance talent (physiology, anthropometry, psychology, injury, adherence, creativity) and explored the factors that may contribute to optimal talent development. Qualitative interview-based research also investigated how these factors relate to both creativity and commitment.
Delegates who attended the event came from a wide range of backgrounds and included dance educators, industry professionals and leaders, academic researchers and policy makers. The research findings presented were received with great interest and feedback from delegates was extremely positive.
Harlequin Group Marketing Manager, Mark Rasmussen said, "Harlequin was delighted to be able to provide financial support to the symposium and applauded the contribution the project has made to the dance community."
Photo: L-R: Imogen Walker, PhD Candidate on the project, Dr Sanna Nordin-Bates Research Fellow on the project & Dr Emma Redding, Principal Investigator on the project.
