Pennsylvania Ballet and Clay Paky

Pennsylvania Ballet and Clay Paky
  • Philadelphia-based lighting designer Michael Korsch selected Clay Paky Alpha Spot QWO 800 and Alpha Profile 800 ST moving lights as part of the rig for the world premiere of “Don Quixote” at the Pennsylvania Ballet. A.C.T Lighting, Inc. is the exclusive distributor of Clay Paky fixtures in North America.

“Don Quixote” at the Pennsylvania Ballet
A lighting and scenic designer who frequently works in dance, Korsch has many years of experience using Clay Paky products. A fan of the Alpha Spot HPE 1500, he incorporated three of them into his lighting design for “Alchemia,” a MOMIX production that premiered in 2013 and has been touring internationally ever since.

Angel Corella, artistic director of the Pennsylvania Ballet, created “Don Quixote” with music by Ludwig Minkus. The new ballet features Spanish-flavored dance and comic interludes to bring to life a story based on Cervantes’s classic novel. The production was staged from March 3-13 at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia. Main Light Industries supplied the Clay Paky fixtures for Korsch’s lighting design.

Korsch deployed Alpha Spot QWO 800s and Alpha Profile 800 ST fixtures on “Don Quixote,” which featured a large, two-story set from San Diego Opera.

“The QWOs and Alpha Profiles were used to light the scenery and focus on characters or special areas. They also served as stage washes to supplement the conventional rig,” Korsch said.

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