Harlequin Cascade gives Riverdance confidence to go all out

Julian Erskine

Since its beginnings as an interval act during the Eurovision Song Contest staged in Dublin, Riverdance has gone on to conquer the world. And where Riverdance goes so do rolls of Harlequin Cascade™ dance floor. 

Recently British Harlequin Marketing Manager, Caroline Reilly caught up with the show and Executive Producer Julian Erskine, in Killarney. In a soon to be released video interview to be published on the Harlequin video channel and YouTube, Julian explained how an extensive search for the right floor ended with choosing Harlequin Cascade™ - a floor that has since toured the world with Riverdance for seventeen years. "We found Cascade™ solved our problems – enough slipperiness for the tappers and enough bite for the Irish dancers. " In the video Julian emphasises how important the floor is to the dancers’ confidence, so they don’t "hold back" and can "go all out" without fear of slipping. Slipping was a real problem in the early days before Cascade™ as the special shoes used for Irish dance polished the traditional wood surface to a shiny and slippery gloss. He explains too the importance of floor colour to work with scenic projection and even the effect of temperature. 

The full interview will be released next month showcasing the continuing role of Harlequin Cascade™ in this long running success, plus a look back at Riverdance history and an interview with a dancer.

Harlequin goes green for the day

Harlequin has gone green today to raise funds for Hospice in the Weald’s ‘Wear Green for the Hospice’ appeal week. 

"As most people know someone who has been affected by a terminal illness we are all dressed in green today to raise money for our local hospice in Pembury. It has been a week-long campaign run by the Hospice in the Weald to raise money. It is a fantastic cause that we are delighted to support, as they provide care to people with life limiting illnesses, to their families and carers."

"With a minimum donation was £1 and almost everyone taking part we have managed to raise £100 - every penny helps! " 

American Harlequin supports dancer safety at IADMS conference

Company Sets the Stage with Sprung Performance Flooring

Washington, DC, October 13, 2011 – American Harlequin (Harlequin), a world leader in floors for the performing arts, along with British Harlequin and Harlequin Europe , is proud to partner with the International Association for Dance & Medical Science (IADMS) for its 21st Annual Meeting, held in Washington, DC from October 13-15, 2011, to support those involved with the healthcare, education, administration and supervision of dancers. 

"Harlequin has been an annual sponsor of IADMS for nearly a decade, " said Bob Dagger, president of American Harlequin. "We believe this partnership is a testament to our Company’s long-standing philosophy to deliver performance flooring products that enable dancers to sustain a long, healthy career." 

Illustrating its dedication to safety at IADMS, American Harlequin displays its cost-effective Harlequin Liberty™ Sprung Floor Panels, which feature uniform suspension and point elasticity to enable compression at the point of contact. Further adding to performance safety, Liberty flooring, available in portable and permanent options, also features: 

• “Area elasticity” to provide flexion and support where a performer lands 
• Consistent shock absorption to reduce injury risk 
• Limitation of flexing to avoid disturbance of neighboring performers
Performance flooring experts from Harlequin will be available throughout IADMS to address the needs and concerns of attendees, including physicians, physical therapists, artistic directors, educators and dancers. 

IADMS was formed in 1990 by an international group of dance medicine practitioners, dance educators, dance scientists and dancers. Membership is drawn equally from the medical and dance professions, and has grown from an initial 48 members in 1991 to over 900 members at present world-wide, representing 35 countries. 

Gala event raises funds for The Hunger Project

The Royal Ballet's Liam Scarlett 
dances Texan Kangaroo Rat
 - ‘Still life’ at the Penguin Café. 
© All rights reserved by
 The Hunger Project UK

The Gary Avis & Friends Charity Gala, which took place in September, turned out to be an important fund-raiser for The Hunger Project. A Harlequin Liberty™ sprung floor used in conjunction with black Harlequin Reversible™ dance surface was installed at the Ipswich Regent Theatre for the two performances, which included dancers from The Royal Ballet and English National Ballet. 

Gary Avis, a Principal Character Artist and also Ballet Master at the Royal Ballet brought a glittering array of talent to his home town of Ipswich. "It was a fantastic success, we had two packed performances with 2600 guests and we raised £50,000 for The Hunger Project which was incredible" said Mark Speirs Marketing, Communications & Fundraising Manager of The Hunger Project UK. 

Bryony Wells of The Hunger Project explained, "the performances, hosted by Angela Rippon involved 10 Principal Dancers from the Royal Ballet and we therefore needed to put in place a good sprung floor. " She continued, "Harlequin provided the floor for an event involving the Royal Ballet last year in Lagrasse, and all the dancers were very happy with this floor. Additionally, Gary Avis teaches at the Wells Summer Schools at which a Harlequin floor is used, and has been very impressed with it. " 

This "World Class Dance Event"included 80 performers supported by 250 volunteers backstage. Performers included The Royal Ballet’s Steven McRae, Jumoké Fashola, Roberta Marquez, Nehemiah Kish, Melissa Hamilton, Paul Kay, Leanne Cope, David Pickering, Yuhui Choe, Ryoichi Hirano, Yasmine Naghdi, Nigel Cliffe and; English National Ballet’s Principal Ballerina Begoña Cao and from East Anglia - The Co-op Juniors, Ipswich Operatic Society, Appeal Theatre Group, The Gallery Players and young performers from the Linda Shipton School of Dance. 

A round up of the gala is published on The Hunger Project blog and there is still an opportunity to give at Gary’s fundraising page on Justgiving.com. 

Ten glorious years of Princess Margaret Awards at Francis Holland School, London SW1

Rimbaud Patron and Mami Fuji
 danced the Pas de Deux
 from Raymonda by kind permission
 of the Directors, 
English National Ballet School.Photo:David Neville.

Val Hitchen has taught at this prestigious Chelsea school for 46 years! In fact since leaving the Royal Ballet School where she was the first student enrolled on de Valois’s newly formed Craftsman’s Course for Teaching. 

Princess Margaret who at the time was Patron of both the Company and the school sent her daughter, the now Lady Sarah Chatto, to Francis Holland School. HRH was extremely supportive of the ballet at school throughout Sarah’s years and beyond. Sarah took all of her RAD Grades with Val and was also accepted onto the Associate programme of the Royal Ballet School. It is not surprising therefore that shortly before she died, she generously gave her name to this unique and very special competition which is now an eagerly awaited for annual summer event at the school. 

The silver rose bowl with the ‘princess’ figurines at the rim was made in Birmingham and dates back to 1910 but perhaps even more special are the two awards which were especially commissioned by parents at the school and made at the David Linley work-rooms. Lord Linley is the son of Princess Margaret. 

The Coronet and the Obelisk both bear the initial ‘M’ in the style used by HRH and the dancers on the Obelisk are taken from photographs of Fonteyn by Jennie Walton. A separate award is named after Dame Antoinette Sibley whose daughter, Eloise, also attended Francis Holland School. 

For ten years both the Royal Ballet School and English National Ballet School have sent students to dance at the Awards Day and this is only made possible by British Harlequin who provide the Harlequin Cacsade dance floor that is laid in the school hall. 

Usually about 24 children are chosen from all those who compete in classes earlier in the year. Once the finalists have been chosen they have to commit to 2 week-ends of new work to be shown on the Awards day. Ages generally range from 4 years to 16 years. 

Over the years the competitors have danced for very special Guests of Honour: Lady Sarah Chatto, Dame Antoinette Sibley, Lady Anya Sainsbury CBE, Sir Peter Wright CBE, Miss Doreen Wells, Miss Lesley Collier, Mr Will Kemp. 

"The surface on which we create our art"

Rafael Bonachela

"We chose Harlequin floors for our studios because we had to have the best," said choreographer and Artistic Director of Sydney Dance Company, Rafael Bonachela in a newly published video interview on the Harlequin Floors website. 

"We approached the purchase of the floor for our four studios with great care and consideration. The floor is a great asset for our daily working lives, it is the surface on which we make our art, so yes, we could only have the best". 

Harlequin Australasia recently installed Harlequin Cascade™ and Harlequin Studio™ for the Sydney Dance Company, working over night to avoid disrupting a busy rehearsal schedule. Rafael Bonachela explained, "the technicians came and laid the floor. We came in the morning after and it was all done, to the 100% perfection we expected, flawless and like magic! "

"When someone says to me Harlequin first of all I feel relaxed, I know I can trust it and I know its going to be a very, very professional surface and that we are going to be able to work very confidently – it’s the best we can have! " 

Rafael Bonachela concluded, "The dancers love the new floor, they are enjoying dancing on it because it’s not slippery and doesn't prevent you from turning or anything like that. Also in contemporary dance there is also very rigorous floor work that we do, that’s why it’s so important we have a great floor. " 

Sprung floors reduce impact injuries at new training centre

"When you are the market leader in Dance Floors, it’s fair to say the one call you don’t expect is from the Australian Commandos!” said Guenther Goetz of Harlequin Australasia recently “…whilst I was still coming to terms with who I was talking to, they casually dropped into the conversation ‘by the way, can your floors be mounted to the wall?’ ” 

Paul Cale, who works for the Integrated Combat Centre at Holsworthy Barracks, NSW and is President of the service’s Integrated Combat Club explained why. “We are increasing our work rate in close quarter training from something that we do a couple of times a year to something we are doing every week. We needed to reduce the rate of injury to achieve that and decided we needed a sprung floor. We needed a floor that didn’t produce a trampoline [effect] but reduced impact without destabalising the members using the facility.” 

The products the Commandos chose were Harlequin Liberty™ sprung floor panels with Harlequin Cascade™ vinyl surface. Technical support on wall-mounting the floor came from Harlequin engineers in the UK and the installation was carried out by Harlequin’s Australian installation team, described by Paul in typical military fashion as “quick and efficient”. 

When asked about the finished result Paul said “It’s something that has very much impressed people that have come to see the centre, particularly when they realise how much effort we have put in to reducing risk and creating a world class facility. Now Commandos can train at full power and full impact…and not sustain an injury.” 

The way that Harlequin Liberty™ sprung floor panels create an even return of energy rather than a bouncy, trampoline degree of spring is exactly why dancers appreciate the impact absorbing properties of the floor. Research continues to demonstrate that a sprung floor of this type can help reduce injuries that dancers receive. Now it seems these properties are also helping Australian Commandos reduce injuries in training.