Harlequin Floors on tour with Jean-Michel Jarre

Photo courtesy of Louis Hallonet

Kicking off in the UK at the beginning of October, French Electronic musician Jean-Michel Jarre’s European tour  got off to a fantastic start, captivating audiences with its spectacular show production, with Harlequin Reversible as the floor of choice for the duration of the tour. 

In the words of The Guardian which has called the show ‘sensational’, Jarre’s show ‘enthralled the crowd and full-house at London’s 02 Arena’. For the highly stimulating show, complete with towering laser beams, production values were high and so Production Manager, Kevin Hopgood, turned to the flooring provider he knows and trusts. 
“Harlequin floors are my first and only choice for all my touring productions. The rigours of concert touring are one of the toughest tests on these products and they never let me down.”

He continued: “The quality of finish is an important factor in the presentation of the show and gives performers the consistency of look and feel that they need. They are equally robust to the challenge of use on multiple shows in arenas across the world and our touring crews and stage manager can always rely on the product to take the punishment of the road".

Printed Harlequin floors feature at the opening of Embankment Garden Cinema

Photo: Courtesy of People

When live experience agency, People, were contracted to design and build a temporary 800-seat cinema for the 60th BFI London Film Festival at Victoria Embankment Gardens, they had quite the audience to impress. And they didn’t disappoint.
 
Production Director, Chris Nevins turned to Harlequin Floors. People wanted to find something special for the floor in the box office and bar area and that’s why they came to Harlequin; for a bespoke printed vinyl floor – printed on Harlequin Reversible.The final effect was as glamourous as the stars that showed on the cinema's screens, during the 12 days of the Festival. 

Commenting on his experience with Harlequin, Production Director, Chris Nevins said: “Harlequin’s response was quick and efficient meaning the order was delivered within the short timescale we needed. The result was great and delivered the impact we were really hoping for.” 

This year’s BFI London Film Festival of 184,700  broke the record for audience attendance and was  up 18% on last year with the new ‘pop-up’ cinema, known as Embankment Garden Cinema  being a big factor.

Dance Proms sponsors, Harlequin Floors has tickets to be won for this year’s spectacular gala event

 Two pairs of tickets are  up for grabs for Dance Proms, the annual gala event, taking place on 30^th October at the stunning Royal Albert Hall. Sponsors of the Event Sponsors, Harlequin Floors is also the official dance floor supplier for the fourth year running.

Since its inaugural event in 2011, the Dance Proms has gone from strength to strength, supported each year by the biggest names in the dance industry such as Darcey Bussell CBE, Len Goodman and Wayne Sleep. Joining Darcey as Patrons for this year’s extravaganza is Arlene Phillips CBE, Akram Khan and Matt Flint, to name just a few.

Dancing their hearts out on a Harlequin sprung floor with Harlequin Reversible vinyl surface will be hundreds of extremely talented young dancers from all over the world, covering a range of different dancing styles from Ballet to Ballroom, from Tap to Tango. Professional guest acts will also be taking to the stage, to provide a jam-packed evening of top quality entertainment.

One of the keys to the event’s success is producer Jo Daykin, who has been with Dance Proms from the very start. Explaining her strategy for the production of this event, in a recent interview with Harlequin, Jo said “there was no way we were going to have a show that didn’t have the highest production values. I couldn’t possibly let something through that was ragged”. And this, for her, is where Harlequin came in: “We had to go to Harlequin. And it was absolutely worth it, from every direction because of the level of support we had and the quality of the floor.”

Harlequin’s Group Marketing Manager, Mark Rasmussen commented: “It’s a great pleasure to see future dancing stars perform on our floors at such an inspiring event as the Dance Proms. We’re extremely proud to be sponsors and look forward to sending four lucky winners to experience the action first hand.”

Harlequin Floors’ Mark Rasmussen all set for debut presentation at IADMS Conference in Hong Kong

Mark Rasmussen will take major speaking role art IADMS

Representing Harlequin Floors at the 26^th IADMS Conference is Group Marketing Director, Mark Rasmussen. Mark will be presenting a paper at the upcoming event, which takes place in Wanchai, Hong Kong from October 20^th to 23^rd. 

With the IADMS conference already an established key date in Harlequin’s calendar for more than ten years, this year sees Harlequin stepping up its involvement even further. As well as continuing to present the Marjorie Moore Student Poster Award, Mark will also be making a joint presentation alongside Peter Lewton Brain from l'Ecole Supérieure de Danse de Cannes-Mougins Rosella Hightower. Their presentation entitled ‘Shall we dance? The science and art behind vinyl dance flooring surfaces’ draws on Harlequin’s considerable experience in the development of dance floors. By working closely with experts in healthy dance for many years, Harlequin has acquired a high level of knowledge and expertise itself on the various ways of enhancing the health and well-being of dancers and works with other associated organisations to help promote this important topic.

Commenting on his upcoming trip to the IADMS conference, Mark commented, “Attending IADMS every year is paramount to Halequin as the messages it promotes are very close to our hearts. To be presenting alongside someone like Peter Lewton Brain this year is a real privilege.”

Harlequin Floors hosts Chinese Delegation in London

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Harlequin Floors was the privileged host for a party of four delegates from China, during a mission to find out about theatre standards and regulations in the UK. 

The group from China were made up Ministry of Culture delegates, Li Quili, Inspector of Policy and Rules and Yan Ping, Head of Policy and Rules and delegates from China’s Art, Science and Technology Institute Director, Weng Fang and Director of Stage Equipment Testing Center, Wang Tao.

First stopping in Germany for two days, the delegates were hosted by Harlequin’s collaborative partner and stage technology company Hoac, before arriving in London on Thursday 15^th September. Ready to greet the guests were Guy Dagger, Harlequin’s Managing Director, Kasper Nyboe, General Manager of Harlequin Asia, Larry Chung from the Sales team in Hong Kong and Susy Chandler, Communications Executive, and with them, a jam-packed agenda for the next couple of days.  

The first meeting, on Thursday afternoon, was with Theatres Trust’s Interim Director and Theatres Advisor, Rebecca Morland, who imparted her considerable knowledge from many years of operational and practical experience in managing theatre buildings. She explained the role of the Theatres Trust and the kind of advice they provide on protecting old buildings, improvements, funding schemes and planning applications for new theatres.

Friday started with a visit to ABTT (The Association of British Theatre Technicians), which took place at The Barbican Centre and included a very special tour of the Fly Tower with Technical Manager, Ashley Pickles and Theatre Systems & Maintenance Technician, Serena Scaramuzzi. This tour gave the delegates the chance to stand 33 metres above the stage floor, on its recently renewed grid.

Hosting the meeting overall was the ABTT’s Chief Executive Officer, Robin Townley, who knew an endless amount on technical theatre and provided fantastic material for the delegates on standards for places of entertainment. Louise Jeffreys, Director of Arts at the Barbican also dropped by to meet the Delegates and talk about the running of the Barbican Centre.

A lunchtime meeting was then held just outside The Barbican and the group was joined by Matthew Wheeler, Rigging Manager at the National Theatre, who spoke to the delegates about the technical needs of production, relating to rigging, armed with photos to demonstrate his work.

The afternoon was spent in Fulham, with PLASA’s Managing Director, Peter Heath and Commercial Manager, Andrew Organ, who welcomed the Chinese delegation to their office despite last minute preparations for the PLASA exhibition at Olympia, which was  opening at the weekend.Giving a breakdown of how the association works, Peter and Andrew went on to explain the nature of its involvement in the development of standards and directives worldwide.

Leaving the next day with an abundance of information and bags of literature to take home with them, it was safe to say the Chinese delegation visit was ‘mission complete’. Harlequin would like to thank its dear friends at Theatre’s Trust, ABTT, The Barbican Centre, the National Theatre and PLASA for all their help in making the visit such a valuable one for the Chinese delegates.   

Sponsors Harlequin Floors present triple winner Bangarra Dance Theatre with the award for Outstanding Performance By A Company at The Australian Dance Awards 2016

It was a wonderfully successful and emotional evening for Bangarra Dance Theatre at this year’s Australian Dance Awards, picking up three awards including the award for Outstanding Performance By A Company, presented by Harlequin’s very own Mark Rasmussen, Group Marketing Manager. 

Welcoming the VIP guests on the night alongside Mark, who gave a passionate speech about the importance of Australian dance, was Ros Dundas, representing Harlequin’s presenting partner of the awards, Ausdance. A touching tribute was given to the late composer and performer, Roy David Page, who was awarded the prize for Services to Dance for his ‘prolific output of memorable and exceptional compositions for Bangarra Dance Theatre’. Completing the winning streak for Bangarra was Elma Kris who won the award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Dancer for her captivating performance in the company’s performance lore. Other winners from the night included Sydney Dance Company’s David Mack, awarded for Outstanding Performance by a Male Dancer and Lucy Guerin for Outstanding Achievement in Choreography for Motion Picture. Dance teacher Terri Charlesworth, won The Lifetime Achievement Award, for her ‘initiative, dedication, generosity and passion, which have greatly influenced generations of Australian dancers.’

Mark Rasmussen commented, “It was a privilege to present the Outstanding Performance By a Company Award to such an inspirational dance company like Bangarra. The way its dancers explore such personal themes through dance while connecting emotionally with the audience is truly enchanting.”

2, 4, 6, 8... Who do ParaCheer appreciate?

Team England ParaCheer have chosen a Harlequin FreeStyle floor for its training sessions as it shtarts its journey to the World Championships in Florida which take place . with the glory of Rio’s spectacular Paralympics still fresh in our hearts and minds, another fantastic feat in disability performance comes as the world governing body of Cheerleading, the International Cheer Union (ICU), formally agrees to accept ParaCheer and ParaCheer Freestyle Pom as official divisions for the 2017 Cheerleading World Championships.

And as of this month the England team are proud owners of a Harlequin Freestyle vinyl performance surface, giving them a true taste of what it will feel like to dance at the all-important Championships.

Harlequin FreeStyle, as the name suggests, was initially developed for street and hip hop dance styles but it has also found favour with other artists such as the multi-award winning indigenous Australian contemporary dance group, Bangarra Dance Theatre. Harlequin FreeStyle's combination of cushioning and mottled surface made it an ideal choice for Team England Paracheer.

Rick Rodgers, one of the founders of ParaCheer, came to meet the Harlequin team and collect the flooring at their head office in Tunbridge Wells just in time the team’s first training session the following weekend.

Aaron Simmonds, Head Coach for Team England ParaCheer, commented on the relationship with Harlequin: “As a competitor myself, I understand how difficult it is training on a wooden floor and then transition to a competition floor where your turns, your leaps, your spins feel different. It’s so useful for us to now be able to experience that beforehand.”

He added: “Also for our disabled athletes to understand how it’s going to feel with the variations that we create for them, so when we go out on to the competition floor at the World Championships, it’s going to feel like home, thank you so much Harlequin!”