052 REPORT
Photo by John Gerbetz BALLET SAN JOSE
Company: Martin Professional Location: San Francisco, USA
Ballet San Jose is a classically-based ballet company that has delivered international quality, theatrically produced ballet to the Silicon Valley in the San Francisco Bay area since 1986. The company has a reputation for innovation and education and standards are high.
Kenneth Keith at Ballet San Jose is responsible for lighting design and technical direction for the company’s repertoire of over 120 traditional and modern classical ballets, including recent performances of Swan Lake and Carmen presented at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts.
Ballet San Jose recently acquired a Martin Professional lighting package of colour changing and effect luminaires, as well as lighting control products as new design components. The opening night of Swan Lake proved an especially satisfying night for Keith as the Ballet opened to a sold out house with audience members that included movie, rock and sports stars, and perhaps most satisfying, a spontaneous standing ovation.
“As a designer here at Ballet San Jose I have developed a devoted and support- ive following for my work over the years, however, this opening night I was being stopped by patrons I had never met with praise for my design and I feel that my credit is shared by Martin Professional and the incredible performance of these new fixtures,” stated Keith.
The recent lighting purchase includes Martin’s M1 lighting console. Keith names two major factors in the California ballet company’s decision to go with it. “The company had done an extensive tour of China and the need for carrying a control board be- came clear,” he said. “The M1 is light and small and can travel easily by plane or bus and is light and compact enough to take back to the hotel room to write changes. “The other major consideration of course was function and ease of use. There is a reason programmers and designers love this new board and it is the ease of use while providing great functions and the interface with MSD that make this one great product.”
www.mondodr.com
Keith has experience with numerous other lighting consoles in past productions but chose the M1’s easy to use platform. The M1 has been designed with a single philosophy in mind - simplicity - and features a clean and easy-to-navigate surface. Its fast dual-core processor ensures a fast and responsive user interface, even if hundreds of playbacks and effects are activated simultaneously. “My programmer Rob Sees loves the new console and with only seven days with the board and the use of the MSD Gold visualisation software he was able to have the show ready to go and to great success,” Keith said of the M1 console. The M1 has a full lighting rig under its control including Martin MAC 2000 Wash XB and MAC 2000 Performance fixtures.
“I decided on the XB after extensive research of what was in the market place for a great wash unit for both front and back lighting,” revealed Keith. “I decided on the XB for its power and smoothness of the wash and great colour mixing. They are by far the best wash unit I have used in my career now spanning over 40 years. The Martin Jem K1 hazer also performed like a dream.”
Besides product performance other factors were important to Keith, namely Martin’s global reach and worldwide service and support network. “For years I was a fan of another moving light company but with international touring in mind, including Asia, I feel Martin provides the best support worldwide to their product.” All Martin lighting gear was supplied to the Ballet by Ballet San Jose benefactor Frys Electronics. Ballet San Jose’s Kenneth Keith saluted everyone at Martin for their assistance on making the purchase of the Martin gear a success. He said: “To say the timeframe for logistics was short would be an understatement. My special thanks to Greg Jones, Brad Haynes and Maryann Berquist for their steadfast and Herculean efforts to see this through.”
www.martin.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148