On the heels of accepting the Icon Award at the 2016 Billboard Music Awards, launching her lifestyle brand and releasing her French-language single ‘Encore un soir,’ Céline Dion kicked off her Summer Tour at the Antwerps Sportpaleis in Antwerp Belgium on Monday, June 20th, 2016. Dion’s highly publicized tour is a collaboration between her production manager, Charles Ethier, and long time designer and tour manager, Yves Aucoin and Denis Savage, respectively. Ethier, Aucoin, and Savage enlisted veteran company, TAIT, the world market leader in creating live entertainment experiences for the likes of Cirque Du Soleil, the Olympics, and world tours including Taylor Swift, the Rolling Stones and more, to create an elegant artistic, yet cutting edge, experience.
The result: a dynamic kinetic light display that captures every emotion, feeling and lyric Dion performs.
TAIT mass-produced 168 Nano Winches, which are compact, flexible single point hoists, featuring a conductive ribbon that transmits power and LED control to a connected fixture. For Dion’s Summer Tour, the connected fixtures are 2 feet long, tube-like cylinders made of fiberglass. Each of the connected cylinders ascend and descend into different configurations, and varying heights, while also changing color to meet the theme of each song.
Dion’s team worked diligently to ensure the theme of the show remained true to her iconic, powerful, and elegant brand. Dion on her own, is a powerhouse performer.
The connected cylinders, at any given point, can extend 60 feet from the Nano Winch and move at approximately 10 feet per second. The Nano Winches’ ability to create a dynamic and ever-changing environment, highlight the innovate the future of set and event design. With TAIT Navigator (a proprietary automation software platform) operating the movement of the Nano Winches, the run-of-show can adjust in real-time or be pre-set. Having this flexible automation software allows for the artists and the designers to add or detract from the show as desired.
The long-term working relationship with TAIT, Aucoin, Ethier, and Savage led to an artistic, elegant and cutting-edge experience for both the audience and the artist. Dion’s Summer Tour will travel through France and Canada before her return residency at The Colosseum at Caesar’s Palace, Las Vegas, NV in September.
