Summit Steel supplied a Kinesys automation system for the English National Ballet’s (ENB) recent UK tour of their acclaimed production, Alice in Wonderland, which culminated in a run at the London Coliseum.
Summit was asked by ENB technical director Al Riches to come up with a tourable solution for accurately flying in and tracking the house—a large scenery piece weighting almost a ton—diagonally across stage at a 45° angle; an effect specifically required by the production’s choreographer Derek Deane.
Summit’s Chris Walker came up with the method of using a varispeed, position encoded, motorized beam trolley and two Kinesys-modified Lodestar hoists. The system was supplied for the ENB crew to be able to operate it themselves with Summit providing a technician to oversee the installation into each venue.
In previous tours of this production, the house has been flown using a counterweight system explained Riches, but this time around they were advised by their health and safety people that this was no longer possible. Summit Steel was recommended to him by the company that looks after ENB’s people-flying—it was the first time that ENB worked with Summit and has been a great success.
“It’s made a huge difference having the Kinesys system” comments Riches “I don’t know how else we would have done it, and I’m really happy with Summit.”
Lewis Carroll's magical and hallucinatory story is brought to life onstage with great imagination and visual panache, featuring Deane's choreography, Sue Blane's fabulous designs, Rick Fisher’s eye-catching lighting, the breathtaking illusions of Paul Kieve, and a superb Tchaikovsky score.