Using 40 jets of flame - higher than a three-story house - FireDance exploded several times a night every night of Vivid Sydney - making Campbells Cove in the Rocks, the world's biggest campfire.
Choreographed to music using the same technology that controls the Harbour Bridge fireworks every New Year's Eve, FireDance featured two different shows, alternating between each other on the 18 incendiary nights of Vivid Sydney. One show was more pop music with the firejet flames dancing to the Katie Perry hit Firework, remixed by renowned artist Peewee Ferris, whilst the other show saw them in a choreographed balletic performance to the magic of Stravinsky's Firebird Suite.
FireDance was produced and created by Howard & Sons Pyrotechnics, a fourth generation family business and leading exponents of flame-projector technology. FireDance uses a pressurised non-toxic hydrocarbon liquid in its FireJets, and its poetry and warmth could be felt literally tens of metres away.
Howard & Sons trialled a new method of flame delivery; ripping the optics out of some cheap moving head fixtures and mounting their flame heads in them!
"It was pretty challenging but now we've proved it can work we will probably do it with a better quality moving head," explained Stuart Bensley, designer and project manager of Fire Dance. "The Jands Vista was controlling all the flame heads and moving heads; about 160 channels of DMX to control 38 Flame heads and four moving head fixtures. We had a Vista S1 connected to an iMac and also a full redundancy system too, both running off timecode so we could swap over if needed."
(Jim Evans)
