Mottos are quite easy to make up, but living up to their grandiose claims? Well…that’s often another story, unless you are talking about Circus Knie 2025. This year, the iconic circus presented itself as offering “a mixture of fantasy, poetry and magic.” An idle claim? Hardly. All three of these wonderful qualities blossomed throughout the big tent as breathtaking human and animal performances, along with some hilarious comedic interludes dazzled the senses and tickled the imagination.
Adding an extra glow to this vibrant mix and intensifying the fantasy, poetry and magic at the show was a versatile and lively lighting design by Axel Melchior. Like the circus itself, Melchior’s work radiated a delightful sense of surprise as it captivated the audience with its unexpected twists and turns.
Of course, maintaining this kind of freshness and originality requires the willingness to embrace change. So, just as the Circus Knie has happily reinvented itself during the course of its long and storied history (it began in 1803), Melchoir, boldly added a new dimension to his lighting design with help from some CHAUVET Professional COLORado PXL Curve 12 fixtures supplied by Dushow. It was one of several enhancements he made this year.
“In our previous design, the light was very good from FOH, but I reworked the show so that it encompassed all the spectators more by multiplying the beams,” he explained. “This allows everyone in the audience to have a similar experience.
“I also added 25 COLORado PXL Curves controlled with sACN, around the scene, which dramatically changes the whole design,” continued Melchior. “In addition, we stopped the waterfall, and replaced it with kinetic spheres on over 500 winches hanging from the ceiling. On top of this, we had eight other COLORado PXL Curves on a motorized platform. In order to control them easily, I simply took the fixture profile for the Curve and created a new profile with an additional 4/5 parameters.
“As far as the PXL Cures are concerned, their individual zoom and tilt allowed me to create very varied looks and to multiply the beams without multiplying the sources,” continued Melchior. “I decided to mount eight of the units on a platform, so I could add infinite rotation movements to the tilt effects. Also, I really needed an IP65 projector because even though we don’t have the waterfall anymore, there is still a lot of dust and dirt in the atmosphere.”
The circus’s design and production team, which also included project manager John Masson from Dushow, artistic director Géraldine Knie, and lighting director Julien Lhomme, added a video floor in the second part of the show. “We needed powerful fixtures to complement this element,” said Melchior. “I also set up the PXL Curves around the floor screen so that they did not light the screen from above which would have been inconvenient. Also, by having the Curves around the scene, I was able to light faces properly. I also had all the liberty I want color-wise to adapt to the costumes and the protagonists on stage. The results were amazing.”
Amazing? Yes, and one might also add words like “fantasy, poetry and magic” to describe the effect. Such is the special allure of Circus Knie 2025 and its inspired new lighting design.
Further information about CHAUVET Professional: www.chauvetprofessional.com
