Every year, each of the final year Bachelor of Circus Arts students at the National Institute of Circus Arts creates a circus act as their graduating piece and these acts collectively form the annual Circus Showcase.
Graduates hope to follow in the footsteps of NICA alumni, employed internationally by Cirque du Soleil, Dragone and La Clique New York and London. Otherwise, here in Australia big companies pay good money for artists to entertain at client functions.
Eduard Ingles, Technical Manager at NICA, is on hand to help the students with the technical side of the production. Also, as a designer he creates a different and particular lighting state, or states, to suit their requirements.
When designing lighting for circus, there are special considerations to take to account with safety one of the most important issues for circus artists. Performers cannot be dazzled by lights and they need to see the stage and their apparatus at all times. The delicate balance between aesthetics and safety is probably the biggest challenge for a designer.
NICA has its own equipment, however, they hire special equipment, such as moving lights, LED strips and special effects depending on the show requirements.
For the Circus Showcase, Show Technology’s Simon Barrett suggested that Eduardo try the Martin MAC Aura as well as a Martin M2GO console.
” I was pleasantly surprised by the performance of the MAC Aura,” commented Eduardo. “The MAC Aura is very bright, has a quick response and the colour rendering is impressive. However the feature that impressed me the most was the 11-58 degree zoom.”
Eduardo has worked with a wide range of lighting consoles including grandMA, Jands Hog 100, Strand Palette and ETC Avab Congo, but he was amazed by the simplicity of the M2GO.
“NICA is considering purchasing a new lighting console and I wanted to trial the new Martin console,” he said. “The M2GO is a magnificent lighting console! It is really easy to program and is very good at controlling intelligent fixtures. The colour mixing is fantastic.
“The M2GO has many interesting features but I would like to highlight the “common parameters control” for multiple fixtures and the “colour selection system”.
The M2GO is small in size but has large capabilities, particularly the four universes. Also it’s really good value for what it offers.”
Photos by David Wyatt.
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