The dance company's technical manager Steven Wilkins worked closely with set designer Jerome Kaplan to devise a set comprising five sets of portal legs that would track on and off stage to different positions to create the various scenes.
"The portal legs were to be moved by the dancers and had to move freely and easily," says Wilkins. "As always at Northern Ballet we set about converting the designer's model into a 3D virtual world to prove that the show will work in the diverse range of venues we tour to. Once we'd worked out the weight of the scenic pieces and that it was within the safe working load of the track Unitrack was an easy choice.
"I choose Triple because every time I've used their products, they have been reliable, quick and easy to use. I like the build quality, and the range of components. Unitrack ticked all of the boxes on this occasion in terms of loading, speed of fit up, ease of movement for the performers moving the set pieces."
The David Nixon adaptation premiered in March at Leeds' Grand Theatre, and has toured the UK during the spring finishing its run at London's Sadler's Wells in May.
"The Unitrack has been excellent on this tour, we've experienced no problems with any of the components and it has been robust enough to stand up to the rigours of weekly moves," continues Wilkins. "We used Unitrack for our previous production of Beauty and the Beast and it performed very well on that tour too."
Scott Foster, Triple E's general manager comments, "It's great to hear that Unitrack, combined with the lightness and smooth running of our new runners, worked extremely well for the dancers and has again stood up to the rigours of a successful tour."
(Jim Evans)
