Tron Dance show for the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia – red and white banners above Tron dancers in red LED suits around a round cascade stage, with the green lines of a football pitch on the floor

Tron Dance Show in Saudi Arabia

To put together one of the biggest Tron Dance shows in a few days?
We didn’t think it was possible until we have done it!

One day, we obtained a wish of our client, to create a custom-made Tron Dance choreography of 30 dancers, in one week. It would not be such a big deal if women are allowed to be a part of this choreography. But the contrary was the case. In Jeddah, they are not really used to having women in the entertainment industry, performing for the public. But the Slovak dance scene is unfortunately not big enough to get 30 male dancers in such a short time. So, we told the client, that we are able to do it in a mixed group if they allow the female dancers to perform there. Our client said that they need to ask for special permission from the government. After three days, we received a message which said that we are allowed to have female dancers and the choreography should consist of 20 dancers. They gave us this permission because Tron Dance is being performed in full dark so nobody can notice that there are some female dancers. It was especially important because the show was streamed live on TV. We had just two days for making the choreography and we still didn’t have music from the client so we decided to prepare the choreography without music and add music afterward. We finally got the music on the day of our flight departure.

Smiling dancers of our crew with drinks and meals at their seats in the cabin of the plane, two of them making a peace sign
Picture 1 – the dancers on a plane to Jeddah

The departure

The whole crew consisted of 20 dancers, 5 technicians, 5 drummers, 2 football freestylers and one choreographer. Technicians went one day earlier than everybody without any problems. The next day, we were supposed to fly in three different groups at different times. As soon as the first group arrived at Vienna’s airport, they were told, that their flight was rebooked and they were going to fly in the evening. The same thing happened with the second group. We didn’t get the visa on time so they rebooked all our flight tickets and we all traveled in the evening. After we flew to Jeddah we spent a few hours at Jeddah’s airport to get all the paperwork done and then we finally arrived at our hotel in the morning. Although we expected hot weather, the high temperature and the huge humidity were a shock for us. We had a rest in the hotel for a few hours and then we went to the football stadium, the place where our performance took place.

Football freestylers playing with balls on a football pitch projected onto the dark stage, next to a trophy on a white pedestal, surrounded by Tron dancers in glowing orange, white and blue LED suits
Picture 2 – Tron Dance performance with football freestylers

The rehearsals

Nothing was as easy as we expected. As soon as we arrived, we were told our music is being changed again. And what’s more, in the middle of our stage was another round cascade stage we didn’t count on. The place wasn’t even ready for our rehearsals so we didn’t have good conditions to get our show ready. But we are professionals and we needed to prepare an amazing show despite all complications. The next day we had a full-day 12-hour rehearsal, where we could try the stage, music and basically everything because our show included the dancers, glowing drummers, football freestylers, and video projection as well. One thing was to rehearse the whole show, another thing was to program the light effects for our show in LSS software. As it was a huge show our choreographer spent the whole night preparing the show.

Our dancers in black costumes with silver studs sitting close together on light blue blankets on the floor of a backstage room, looking at a laptop on a table
Picture 3 – the dancers watching a movie while waiting for the rehearsals

The show

Everybody was fully ready to perform the best show we have ever done. The show was watched by the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia and it was also streamed live on TV. The show was on the occasion of opening the new football season and we were also launching the newest football ball for Nike. We were the main entertaining part of the show. Even though the preparation was really difficult, the show was amazing. Everybody was really satisfied and the organizers finished the whole show with a spectacular firework.

Tron Dance opening ceremony for Saudi Pro League in Jeddah Football stadium – plays from YouTube or Vimeo once you press play

The next day the organizers bought some typical clothes for us and took us for some nice sightseeing around. Despite the hot weather, we enjoyed it a lot. We also got used to many things such as wearing long-sleeved clothes even if it is really warm, being flexible about the flights because there was one more change in flying back home and if they tell us to wait 5 minutes it is not just 5 minutes but usually it takes about one hour. But despite all these things, the organizers tried to do everything to make our trip to Jeddah really enjoyable and we got one more surprise from them after coming back: a letter of thanks from the government for the great show, amazing technology, and spectacular choreography. We hope we are going to have many more amazing shows like this one.

Our whole crew posing cheerfully outdoors in front of high-rise buildings – the men in white thobes and red-and-white checked headscarves, the women in black abayas and headscarves
Picture 4 – the whole Tron Dance crew in a typical Saudi Arabian dress

Do you have any questions? Don’t hesitate to contact us here.