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Super Rake


Ninja Jim

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Hi Everyone

 

I just wanted to here your ideas on something I need to research.

 

Basically I'm looking into the idea of a very steep raked stage (45 degrees or higher) or a ramp at the back of stage. this ramp would then be danced on with possible devices to allow the dancers to look like they are deifying gravity.

 

Does anyone know of any pre-existing shows, equipment or ideas that may be helpful.

 

Thanks

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Moving about on a sloping surface is difficult, dancing on a sloping surface is virtually impossible without a mountain of technical equipment, a specialist team and a very large pile of money - to create a safe "budget" version of CDS's Battle wall (performers running in zero gravity, without the wall also moving as CDS's does) would cost you the same sort of money as it would cost to buy a house and require at least half a dozen expensive off-stage staff just to run and maintain it.

 

There's cheaper, non-technical ways to create gravity-defying dance sequences but these are based on circus ideas and any routine you create is going to ultimately going to be performed by and look like a piece of circus acrobatics rather than dance. The only way you're going to get something anti-gravity that's also more dance focus'd is to first come up with the vision of precisely what moves you want to do what what you WANT it to look like, then go to an experienced circus / FX designer (coughs & puts up hand) and get them to create you a technical solution that enables you to do what you want; you're definitely not going to find anything available off the shelf.

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...hence why I said you're going to end up with something that looks more like circus and which is going to require specialist circus consultants. You're also underestimating the infrastructure cost - building a sloping stage, adding properly rated rigging points/ropes to it, having an expert assess the routines to ensure they're not overtly dangerous and writing the appropriate method statements, employing the specialist crew(s) to assemble and maintain it all, employing the extra specialist physio to deal with the injuries and strains that harness and circus/stunt work produces will all add up

 

It's all perfectly possible but to do this you've got to have proper multi-way discussions with the choreographer, the set designer, a specialist engineer and an expert(s) in the specific disciplins of circus/stunt that you want to use so that collectively you come up with a solution that actually does what you want is the only way to proceed; absolutely no part of what you're trying to do is available "off the shelf" so generic discussions with no details on an internet forum will be of little real use.

 

If you're just looking for examples of performances on unusual non-flat stages then take a look at all the CDS "resident" shows (vegas, macau, orlando) as between those 9 productions you've got examples of performance on just about every angle and variation of slope possible; but every one of those stages was designed through a collaboration between all the creative team and costs a lot of money to run.

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...hence why I said you're going to end up with something that looks more like circus and which is going to require specialist circus consultants. You're also underestimating the infrastructure cost - building a sloping stage, adding properly rated rigging points/ropes to it, having an expert assess the routines to ensure they're not overtly dangerous and writing the appropriate method statements, employing the specialist crew(s) to assemble and maintain it all, employing the extra specialist physio to deal with the injuries and strains that harness and circus/stunt work produces will all add up

 

It's all perfectly possible but to do this you've got to have proper multi-way discussions with the choreographer, the set designer, a specialist engineer and an expert(s) in the specific disciplins of circus/stunt that you want to use so that collectively you come up with a solution that actually does what you want is the only way to proceed; absolutely no part of what you're trying to do is available "off the shelf" so generic discussions with no details on an internet forum will be of little real use.

 

If you're just looking for examples of performances on unusual non-flat stages then take a look at all the CDS "resident" shows (vegas, macau, orlando) as between those 9 productions you've got examples of performance on just about every angle and variation of slope possible; but every one of those stages was designed through a collaboration between all the creative team and costs a lot of money to run.

 

its all of use as I'm just researching at the moment. but I think we are thinking a lot smaller scale like possibly one or two small ramps or curved blocks to be as set pieces (maybe 2m squares)

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... you're going to need someone to design those ramps to make sure they're safe and suitable, you're going to need a rigger/rigging designer to make sure the ropes/harness's are appropriate, you're going to be spending money on a physio to deal with the extra strains and injuries from dancing on such an unusual surface in an unusual way. These are all going to apply whether you spend 10mins on a 2m ramp or do a whole 2 hour show on a multi-axis moving platform.
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