Chauvet lights dancers’ Confidential Tour
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“In recent years, I have done the lighting for a number of tours produced by Faculty Management that included both the Dancing With The Stars Live tours, and Dancing With The Stars alums Derek and Julianne Hough,” says Morse. “When Faculty and Butch Allen, who did the production design for this tour, invited me to come on board, I was very happy to oblige. Butch’s design provided an excellent canvas for lighting.”
Like the choreographed performance on stage, Morse’s lighting flowed smoothly throughout each show on the 49-city tour, but as was the case with the dancers’ efforts, his seemingly natural design was the result of intense planning and hard work. “Our budget was limited, so I had to cover a lot of area with surprisingly few fixtures or hang positions,” he says.
“The best option for highlighting the dance was to go with tormentor positions. Unfortunately, these flown positions were not available, again due to budget, so I utilised 7ft tall pipe and base (three per side) to serve as low-level (7ft max height) side light and shin kicks. In the end, though, the low positions for the sources actually looked quite dramatic.”
The 10 Maverick MK2 Wash fixtures and 16 Q-Wash 560Z-LED movers in Morse’s rig filled multiple roles during the show, helping him expand his design options. He placed six of his Maverick units on the downstage truss and flew the remaining four across the upstage truss. The downstage Mavericks served as a front cross wash on the apron area. By creating this cross-stage pattern, Morse was able to evoke the “feel of a cross/tormentor cover”, even though traditional tormentor positions were not available.
Morse relied on the Maverick MK2 fixtures on the upstage truss to serve as both back washes and cross washes.
For side lighting, Morse used his Q-Wash 560Z-LED fixtures. He mounted three units each on downstage and mid-stage trees positioned to either side of the stage. An additional four units were mounted two apiece on stage left and stage right upstage trees.
Benny Kirkhasm, who has worked with Morse on many larger projects, including his work for Michael Jackson, programmed the Confidential Tour, while Alyssa Milione served as lighting director. “I was blessed to have such a talented team,” says Morse. “I was extremely proud and gratified to see how we pulled together a complex show with a relatively limited number of fixtures.”
(Jim Evans)
