White Light takes a shine to Rambert

UK - Rambert is Britain's national dance company and has built a reputation of commissioning leading dancemakers, composers and designers from across the globe. It presents new and historic dance works to audiences in all parts of the country, performed by world-class dancers and accompanied by live music. The company recently decided to install a new lighting set-up in its London base, with this being used more and more frequently as a performance space. For both the purchase and installation of its new equipment, Rambert turned to White Light to draw on the company's extensive stock range and expertise.

Rambert is based on London's Southbank in an award-winning building which was officially opened by HM The Queen in March 2014. The move to the new location not only reflected the prominence of the company within British dance but also sought to provide the public with greater access to the company's work in a purpose-built facility. Earlier this year, the company decided to invest in lighting equipment which would allow its spaces to be used at their full potential.

Malcolm Glanville, Rambert's technical director, comments, "The aim was to install a dance-type lighting rig which would not only be suitable for the variety of dance-based projects we have at Rambert but also provide us with the option to light other events which take place in the space. We provide for a wide sector, whether these are educational projects or showings or sponsorship events so we needed something which could cater for this."

White Light's business development manager Jonathan Haynes, comments, "Rambert came to us wanting a flexible solution to cater for their diverse projects and provide a very specific feel for their unique space. We wanted to help them create something which would not only be self-efficient but provide a wide range of options for those utilising the venue."

Rambert purchased the very latest cutting-edge technology from WL, including ETC Lustr 2 Profiles, with additional Fresnel lens tubes, ETC ColorSource PARs, ROBE DL4S Profiles and Robe Robin 300 'TV' spec fixtures with a 15W chipset. WL also provided and commissioned an ETC Sensor3 system with 36 dual Thru-Power modules. Jonathan adds, "The fixtures specified complement each other perfectly, offering excellent optical and colour quality as well as extremely smooth dimming which is of critical importance in the world of dance."

Whereas it was important that the lighting used suited the performance requirements of the space, it was vital to Rambert that it was also efficient to run. Malcolm comments, "As the new equipment is exclusively LED, it produces considerably less heat. The fact that it can colour change with ease means fewer fixtures hence a considerable reduction in our energy use."

(Jim Evans)

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