Dancing on Ice, originally called “Skating with Celebrities” is one of the most successful television programs launched in the UK, with a format that has already been imported by many other countries.
Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, considered to be the best ice skaters of all time, are the full-time guests at the show. Their objective is to train amateur skaters—often persons from the sporting or entertainment world—and to follow up their progress throughout the programme with comments and advice.
The Dancing on Ice 2008 tour aimed to transform the magic of the television show into a live show to be held throughout the United Kingdom. It was therefore necessary to form a new group of professionals, technicians and operators to deal with the different requirements of each location, whilst maintaining the same characters and emotions created by the television program.
The tour show LD Durham Marenghi used 46 Clay Paky Alpha Profile 1200 and 20 Clay Paky Alpha Beam 300, the brand new moving light beam launched this year on the market.
Marenghi explains: “The main spectacular element of the television show, and likewise the tour, is the projection of the light onto the ice, even if the surface of the ice is four times larger on tour. There are 5 television cameras which film the presenters, the judges, the skaters and the 10,000 spectators at the ice rink.”
Marenghi claims he used Alpha Beam 300 lights mainly to light the perimeter of the rink, as the "VIP" skaters are not experts and need to be able to see the edge of the skating area clearly during their performance. “The Alpha Beam 300 are ACL type projectors and provide incredible light. Moreover, they proved to be totally reliable and very practical for intensive use on tour due to the fact that they are compact and not that heavy.”
Marenghi also explains why he chose to use the Alpha Profile 1200: “I chose the Clay Paky Alpha Profiles for their advanced optics, their simplicity and their framing system which was most reliable throughout the tour. The Alpha Profiles gave me an enormous advantage over traditional profile lights as they do not require manual adjustments to the focus and profile system truss.”
The Alpha Profiles were the stars of the show, coloring the ice with a multitude of sizes and shapes of light, creating an outstanding scenography between the judges area and the megascreens.
The entire lighting system was supplied by PRG Europe, Tim Routledge performed all the programming operations using the grandMa, which were adapted for the tour by Richard Knight and Any Mitchinson.