Sketchup again...

To save model boxing a show that is being created... I offered to build it in 3d in Sketchup. It's been a while since I've run the app, and also it's seemed a good project to use to start getting to know my new MacBook with!

I started with importing PDF plans of the ground floor layout. Then overlaying construction lines that I tidied up and then pulled up into 3d. Only done some of the stage and half the seating rake so far... check back soon for a more finished view of the Dance Lab at Dance City.

Just Jam 2010 International Battle (and sequences!)

This weekend just gone has been a busy one... following the New Art Club show we had two sold out houses for a Bboy theatre show and then a Bboy international battle.
All the performances involved busy turnarounds in to various configurations.

Most importantly we finally understood how to write chases on the Congo Jr. And this wasn't as painful as expected... and it helped us to make it look like we were doing much more work than we may have been! ;)
Give it a couple of days then search for "just jam 2010" on Youtube... there should be plenty of evidence!

Backstage :)

Tomorrow night we have the New Art Club in for a performance. They asked if we could reduce the stage size down to 6m... Obviously happy to help. So we've moved the upstage tabs to midstage.
Shame we only have the extra space for one night only as we have BBoying in for the two nights following...

Valley of the Dolls

We have Ballet Lorent in at the moment...
They have a few additional members of the cast in the form of a load of Dolls from Habitat. I've asked for fire ratings on them already... but now it's the day before the show I insisted...
Turns out they are pretty flammable... out comes the Flame Check :)
Here's them drying...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=537GGOjOFLQ

Generators and Stuff

This weekend I was working in Leicester Sq for a Cadburys promotion, Spots and Stripes game.

It was all a bit fraught... missing the last train and just managing to hire a car in time to get me there for a 4am call wasn't good! But this is what greeted me when I got there:

All in, a nice weekend till this:



This is a photo of an xray of the tip of my finger taken at St Thomas's after the jockey wheel of a trailer generator collapsed... Ouch! And thoroughly frustrating now :(

BBC Look North

Yesterday we had a surprise call from the BBC. They wanted to use one of our spaces to film a quick live article on some dance research.
We had a satellite van outside and a crew inside.
I was really pleased with how quickly the Lab accomodated this... and they left with a great impression of the space! :)

DC Atrium

The atrium at DC really does attract a lot of light at all times of the day. This I caught as I was locking up tonight.

Sometimes when the sun is just right we can get real light into the theatre. Usually when when we don't want it to I might add.

Points.

Finally.. and probably not before time, I spoke to the steelwork designer for Dance City. He is a dude caller Wille and works for Arup in Scotland.

I had a question over the suitability of the beams from which we suspend our motors from in the Dance Lab. And after one quick calculation he answered it with a "Yes, that's fine. You have a large safety factor in there. I'll email you the calc"

Awesome!!!

Lesson in this is: Stay away from architects, they are making it up. Speak to designers, they do the work!

And for those that are interested, here is the steelwork layout for the 3rd floor at DC:

Tallescope!

Will probably bite the bullet and move on to a mororised system of access soon. Writing a risk assesment whilst maintaining any sort of productivity with a Tallescope is proving difficult. Just wish I didn't have a sprung dance floor to put a machine on as it rather limits my choices! :(

Carbon Reduction Commitment

Today I got the draft of a CRC report from EDF energy, our electricity supplier...
All organizations have to assess themselves by sometime in Sept 2010 to see if they qualify for the full scheme and if so register with the environment agency. (This would involve buying carbon credits for the following year)
Luckily we don't, although I wasn't sure there for a while... full registration is required when you consume 6,000 Mwh. Now that's a lot of numbers in a row and it confused me.
It turns out we use about 261,926kwh of elec... double that for gas and we use, lets say: 600,000kwh of energy... 10% of the required amount.
As an additional note... I use a logging tool called Smeasure which compares energy usage to degree days (i.e. ambient temp'ish). This service puts us at above average in the efficiency of the use of our energy.