Dance4 at 25 bringing world class dance facilities to Nottingham

Nottingham based Dance4 celebrates a successful 25 years this year to a new home  set to provide a fully accessible international centre for dance and choreography right in the heart of the city. Harlequin Floors played an important role in equipping the new dance studios with Harlequin  Activity floor completed with a black vinyl Standfast floor surface in Studio 1, Activity also in Studio 3, but here with a grey Standfast dance surface and for Studio 2, a Harlequin WoodSpring floor with maple surface.

Rachel Emmett, Head of Finance and Operations at Dance4 says “ We chose Harlequin because they are the industry standard for top quality, professional dance floors.  We wanted to have the best supplier to fulfil our ambition to create a world-class facility for choreography and dance.” Dance4 is an independent charity and dance development agency working with international artists who are working within 21st century choreographic practice. With 25 years experience of supporting the development of contemporary dance and choreography Dance4 believes dance is for everyone and runs an acclaimed Centre for Advanced Training in dance.

On the 31st March 2016 Dance4 held a very special Charity Celebration Benefit Gala at the wonderful location of the Council House Ballroom, in the heart of Nottingham. The great and the good from the city joined friends from further afield to celebrate Dance4’s 25th year and helped raise funds for Dance4’s international Centre for Choreography due to open this summer. The Gala featured a fabulous three-course meal accompanied by glorious entertainment all hilariously hosted by Pete Shenton from New Art Club.

Natifah White - Dance4’s Centre for Advanced Training (CAT) in Dance graduate - performed the solo that earned her a place at The Place. Birmingham Royal Ballet dancers, Tyrone Singleton and Céline Gittens, performed a mesmeric duet from Swan Lake and cheeky Spiltmilk Dance performed vignettes throughout the evening, culminating in a social dance for everyone to join in.

There were plenty of ways to fundraise throughout the evening including a ‘Silent Auction’, a ‘High-speed Hilarious Heads and Tails’ with a twist and a ‘Build a Heavenly Harlequin Dance Floor’ special raffle. Guest were given the opportunity to buy samples of Harlequin Dance floor to literally build a dance floor for the new international Centre for Choreography. Guests wrote their name on the back of their samples and handed them to students from Dance4’s CAT to lay out onto the floor to create a colourful dance floor in the centre of the resplendent Council House Ballroom. Once the samples were pieced together to create the dance floor, the fun really began, as a piece at a time was upturned to reveal the winners. The samples made a real contribution to Dance4's Campaign25 and helped raise vital funds for the new centre. 

It was a wonderful opportunity for people to feel they were contributing in a very real way by helping Dance4 to establish an exemplar creative facility whilst having great fun and winning prizes too! 

The Harlequin team is looking forward to future opportunities for working with Dance4.

Harlequin runs seminar for RADA technical students

Ray Lloyds with Neil Fraser

Recently, Harlequin Floors was invited to present a seminar session for students studying the Technical Theatre & Stage Management course at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

Neil Fraser, Director of Technical Training at RADA, approached Harlequin as the recognised leader in the knowledge, expertise and development of floors for the performing arts.  Some twenty students participated in the seminar day for this special training session, which was also an important compulsory module for their RADA Professional Development. 

The seminar was presented in the Jerwood Vanbrugh Theatre by Mark Rasmussen and Ray Lloyds, both from Harlequin Floors. Mark commenced by explaining why special floors have been developed for the performing arts for the benefit of the performers and the technical requirements and testing the floors will need to meet. Mark continued with a review of some recent stage floor projects covering both new build projects and major stage refurbishments. Then it was over to Ray for a ‘hands on’ practical session learning how to fix floor panels together, to measure out, cut and how to correctly tape down flooring. Taping covered two techniques - top and under floor taping - and demonstrated the differences between these. By the end of the day the students had gained a valuable insight into the importance of having the right floor and acquired some first hand practical skills – even taking away a reel of Harlequin tape together with product information, the ever useful gifts of pens and the indispensible tea mug. 

The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) offers world-leading vocational training for actors, stage managers, directors, designers and technical stage craft specialists.

RADA was established in 1904 and has built an outstanding reputation as a world-renowned centre of excellence, offering the best possible facilities, exceptional teaching and strong links with the industries that employ our graduates. RADA’s student population is a diverse community, united by a shared passion for theatre-making. The Academy prides itself both on the professional standard of its student productions, which are attended by agents, casting directors and theatre practitioners, and on their track-record of employment in theatre, film and television.

Harlequin Partners with RAD Pop Up Events programme

Harlequin Floors is partnering with RAD to present a new series of Pop-Up Dance Events in London this summer.

The success of the Pop-Up Dance idea at the time of the Genèe last September demonstrated the feasibility of the concept and has prompted the RAD to organise more performance opportunities for members this summer. The basic idea is simple and one which belies the organisation that goes on in the background – RAD organise the venue, Harlequin lay a sprung floor, dancers turn up and perform, while the general public watch.

Announcing the partnership commitment by Harlequin Floors that has made this new series of events possible, Marketing Manager, Mark Rasmussen explained, “The public venues arranged by RAD are not dance studios or stages that enjoy the benefit of sprung dance floors. RAD is instead taking dance to the public at railway stations and in other public areas where we bring in and set up a portable sprung floor. This is essential for the safety of dancers to ensure they do not have to perform on hard, unyielding surfaces. The Harlequin Liberty floor we install comprises a number of modular sprung panels which latch together to form a continuous floor that can be reconfigured to suit the different spaces.”

The venues announced are:-

• Friday 8 July at Broadgate Circle, City of London (next to Liverpool Street Station).
• Saturday 23 July at Canada Square Park, Canary Wharf, London.
• Saturday 22 October at King’s Cross Station, London.

RAD Director of Fundraising and Development Matthew Cunningham said, “We’re excited to be bringing dance back to the streets of London in partnership with Harlequin Floors. Not only is this a unique performance opportunity for many young dancers, we hope we’ll also surprise and delight a few unsuspecting audiences along the way.”

Mark concluded, “Our partnership with RAD dates back more than 25 years. It has developed over the years through a shared interest in the success, well-being and general welfare of dancers.”