Tag Archives: performers

Dance group entertainment

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For entertainment that really gets your party started, it’s hard to beat a professional dancer for sheer energy, visual impact, and more than a touch of glamour.

Dancers and dance companies perform choreographed routines that combine music and movement into an energetic and elegant form of entertainment. Most dance groups offer a range of traditional, classical and contemporary dance styles, including elegant ballroom dancing, street dance, Las Vegas style showgirls, traditional Irish dancing, Latin American tango, Spanish flamenco, and the more risqué charms of burlesque.

Most dancers for hire and dance troupe offer either a standard show that can be adapted to your venue and event, or as bespoke option to create exactly the mood and feel you require for your event.
Whether you’re looking for a solo belly dancer to surprise guests at a birthday party, or classical ballerina to add grace and elegance to your product launch, dancers and dance groups provide an energetic, engaging, and ultimately highly entertaining show for your guests.

Most dancers and dance troupes are extremely versatile, often offering a wide variety of dance styles for your event. Chances are, if a dance troupe focuses exclusively on one or two dance styles or forms, they will have a high level of expertise in these forms and therefore put on a more authentic show.

Some of the dance companies featured at Red Masque Directory will create bespoke shows just for you, and bring in dancers and performers with the correct level of skills required. So, just because they don’t specialise in Street Dance for example, they can probably call on some very good performers if you require a bespoke urban style performance.

Take a little time to look at the Profiles of dancers and dance companies here on Red Masque Directory. All companies will feature photographs of their dancers, and some offer video, a great way to see what they look like in action.

The sound of the Cello

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The cello is a relatively large instrument – one might even think of it as a massive violin – but did you know that the cello isn’t even its full name? The word ‘cello’ is merely an abbreviation of the word ‘violoncello’. If you don’t speak Italian then at a stretch, you might think the name means ‘violin cello’ but you’d be wrong.

When translated literally, it means ‘little big viola’. The cello is in fact a small version of another instrument, which is known as a violone. If you’ve never heard one of those then you’re not alone; only a few players around the world specialise in this instrument and the closest you’re going to get hear one in an ordinary setting is by listening to a double bass (which combines features of both the viola and the violin families).

Not only is the cello a small version of the violone, but a violone is also a large type of viola. Hence ‘little big viola’. We admit they could have just gone with ‘small violone’ but where’s the fun in that? With the ‘violoncello’ all too often truncated down to ‘cello’ in modern times, the name of the instrument often had an apostrophe sitting in front of the ‘c’. This abbreviation has fallen by the wayside in recent years – much like the Waterstones apostrophe – and as such, we’re left with the cello being called the cello!

Apart from all this, we know that a Cello has the most amazing sound and if you were to hire this amazing instrument for your private event or corporate party, we are sure that your guests will no doubt think this wonderful entertainment!!

Have a fire party

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Party guests love a good fire act. Fire acts and performers know how to get a corporate party going and instantly provide a warm atmosphere to proceedings. If you’re looking to hire fire acts then you know where to come. You’ll see something that is entertaining, safe and perfect for all guests to enjoy. .

Way back in 1658, a nearby volcano erupted and laid siege to all in its wake. Incredibly, the town of Nejapa managed to avoid most of the destruction when the lava stopping just short of the local church. According to folklore – and it is a bit hazy – the town’s patron saint, San Jeronimo, wanted to douse the area in fire to get rid of the Devil or saved the town by stopping the lava from reaching the sacred building that bears his name. Whichever way you look at it, locals believe that San Jeronimo saved the town in some form so to celebrate they chuck fire at one another. That’s probably the only part of this festival that isn’t disputed.

So how do you set up the world’s most volatile festival? First, you soak rags in kerosene for a month before the matches and lighters are brought out. Wearing Halloween costumes – we know it’s starting to sound a lot like The Purge – participants then wear protective gloves and chuck fire at each other. That’s it. That’s the only rule. Even if you’re only watching, you’re still allowed to be hit so maybe observe from affair. Not only do people chuck the fire at each other, they even engage in hand to hand combat. It’s chaos..

Few serious injuries have been reported, although what denotes serious is never explained. You can rest assured we’ll never advertise this form of entertainment for your event but it’s certainly a fascinating fact.

It’s all about magic

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When someone suggests to hire a magician for an event, you might conjure up images of a cheesy magician from the eighties. Perhaps even a children’s magician who will produce an incomplete colouring book at a corporate event, waving a literal magic wand and suddenly showcasing the pages full of colour. When we talk about it hiring magicians for corporate events, we mean something a lot more cool and a lot more enjoyable.

Ice Breakers
When people arrive for a corporate event, it’s fair to say that even if they’re from the same company, they might not know anybody there. As such, a magician is a brilliant way to break the ice, encouraging others to form a group around where the trick is performed and ensuring that people can talk after being introduced. As the magician moves on to another group, these two, three or even four people can chat about the miracle they’ve just witnessed! Magicians are great for breaking the ice at parties and events and best of all, getting people talking!

Social Media
A great trick is sure to amaze and to that end, magicians are very likely to have their performance shared on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram so that guests in attendance can share the magic with their friends online. This is brilliant for any corporate client because it means that not only is their event being shared but their company brand and logo might feature in the background of a photo or video, whilst they get the added benefit of looking like a fun company to work for who reward their employees with fantastic evenings out! How’s that for free advertising and PR?

It isn’t just magic…
When you book a magician for an event, you might be thinking only of card and coin tricks. Not so! We want you to think even further than that – magicians aren’t just able to pull of some incredible sleights of hand but are also able to provide some astonishing feats of mentalism as well. Think the most amazing tricks by Derren Brown! Combining familiar card tricks with displays of mind reading really does stun guests and are another great reason for having magic in attendance

Toga party ideas

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If you’re wanting to go with a historical theme, going as far back into the past is perhaps the best way to ensure that guests really feel as if they’ve escaped the modern world for a few hours. We thought we inspire you for some toga party entertainment ideas.

Costume

Many people turn up with their own bedsheet but if you want this to be the best toga party of all time then smidgen of authenticity is key. Not only can you provide togas to each and every individual as they arrive, you can also provide them with a few ancient props to enhance the atmosphere. Laurels for the head, a bunch of grapes… You name it, it’s all possible.

Living Statue
The ancient world was absolutely obsessed with statues. Big ones, small ones, ludicrously huge ones—Statues really were the embodiment of the ancient world. Sculptors were just as revered as the finest painters and hundreds of years later, their works are paraded in museums such as the V & A and the Louvre. Enhance your party by hiring living statues; they don’t have to move but they’ll certainly add to the toga party vibe!

Harp
One of the most elegant instruments of all time. Invented sometime around 3500BC, they didn’t actually make it across to Europe until sometime around the 8th century, but why let that get in the way of some fine musical entertainment? If you’re looking to book music for a party, there’s nothing better than a harp to get people in the mood for your historical event.

Olympic Games
You probably can’t hold the actual Olympic Games in the ground of your venue, but you can certainly modify the ancient Olympics for your needs. By booking a few fun-filled garden games – croquet competition anyone? – you can ensure there’ll be laughs aplenty, especially once the drink starts flowing! If you so desire, there can be rewards for the winners including (chocolate) gold coins and yes, more grapes!

Celebration time

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The celebration of becoming ‘Bar Mitzvah’ (or ‘Bat Mitzvah’ for girls) is the traditional Jewish coming of age ceremony usually observed at 13 years of age for boys and 12 for girls. It is the initiation into adulthood and is looked upon now as the equivalent of Western Christianity’s celebration of confirmation.

Traditionally however, becoming Bar Mitzvah meant that for the first time you could participate in community prayers known as mitzvot (commandments and laws.) Jewish custom requires a quorum of 10 people for public prayer so the traditional ceremony requires the child to call the congregation together by singing a prayer and reading a section from the Torah.

Bands Who Perform Jewish Music
Many celebrations now end with a party for friends, family and community members. No party is complete without live music entertainment. If you’re looking for a band who can provide exceptional music for a wide age range of guests, maybe performing a mixture of Jewish / Klezmer-style music as well as other styles such as classical, pop or swing, Red Masque has a selection of high quality bands for you.

Embrace South American culture

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Why not embrace all that Latin spirit, and learn the life-loving, hip-swaying moves from Latin America

Top of your list should be the Latamba Party Band, who bring all the energy, exuberant and sequins of a Latin Brazilian party to any venue. These guys really know how to dance. Guests can sit back and enjoy a fantastic live band, vocalists and dancers performing a great show, before joining in on the dance floor! They also offer a small space/small budget option with backing tracks instead of the full bands, but still keeping all that energy and sense of fun. Perfect for a corporate event or private party.

If you want to push the carnival float out a contemporary Brazilian carnival band for hire that can fill your party with music from the streets and clubs of Rio de Janeiro. This is no small scale outfit either Carnival Bands are made up of around 25-30 musicians including five percussionists, a singer, a Brazilian ukulele player, and two gorgeous dancers in full carnival style costume!

If learning all those dances seems a little too much like hard work, do what most football fans do, and sit back with a beer and enjoy watching the professionals do it! Carnival Party bands have their own troupe of dancers, whose performances feature Carnival samba costumes, sensual mulatta dancers, Capoeira (Brazilian acrobatic martial art dance), Lambada, Afro-Brazilian dance, Brazilian north eastern folkloric dances and much more.

Great entertainment you’ll remember

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Caricaturist

If you’re looking to hire a caricaturist for an event, then you have got to make sure that you are fine with having your eyebrows accentuated and your nose looking a little larger than in real life. But that’s all part of the fun! A good caricaturist knows how to draw a cartoon-style representation of their subject without causing offence and the best part is that with modern technology being what it is, you can take home a paper or digital version.

Silhouette Artist

The heights of the vaudeville era are in full display in the form of a silhouette artist, who can snip your profile into a piece of black card in the space of a matter of minutes. The best bit about this incredible form of entertainment is that you can go home and frame your silhouette later, with each individual creation being stuck onto a quality back lining.

Eyecon Art

Okay so technically we’re breaking our own rule in that opening paragraph as Eyecon Art is essentially a photograph. But don’t go thinking that this is the same as hiring a photographer for an event. Rather than capture you standing awkwardly by the DJ as you ponder which canapés to chow down on, Eyecon Art will have you heading home with an incredibly close-up shot of your eye. Every iris is unique and dare we say it, look tremendous!

Screen Printing

Whether you call it screen printing, letter pressing or something completely different, these fabulous contraptions can have you created your very own work of art in no time! Popular entertainment at corporate events, you too can discover the art of the print. Remember not to limit yourself to paper or card; should you so desire you can create your design on a T-shirt. Wear your creation and remember that party in style!

Does music affect behaviour?

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We constantly consume music, whether we are aware of it or not, and we will end up in situations where we participate in subconscious listening every day.

This could be at the supermarket, with music playing over the loudspeakers, during TV ads or programmes, where music often sits in the background to augment a mood. It could also be at an event or conference, where there is either a hired live band or background music being played in the venue. All of this subconscious or inactive listening has an impact on how we behave.

We mostly think of music as pure entertainment, but marketers have been using it to influence our behaviour for decades. It’s a particularly prolific strategy in consumer goods industries, but the principles can easily be applied to the event industry.

Using the right type of music at an event can potentially be very profitable, and as such there’s been a lot of research into exactly how different types of music affects behaviour within a specific environment. Certain types of music can make us move through a space faster, linger longer, change our perception of queue times or makes us spend more.

Unsurprisingly, fast paced music makes people move faster, and so does loud music. Slow music generally makes people slow down. It might be basic, but it’s an important factor in creating a specific mood for an event. Do you want people to be energised and buzzing, or relaxed and laid-back?

So if you’re putting on a race or sporting event, you’ll want to increase the volume and get some dance or rock music blasting out to energise your participants. However, if you’re running an exhibition and want people to linger and chat at stalls, you’ll probably want to opt for slower, softer sounds to keep the pace steady and encourage more conversations.

If you like to listen to music, like most of us, you will have experienced how it can impact your mood. This is something the media and marketers know how to take full advantage of. In addition to our emotional reactions, they also play on the associations we attach to different types of music.

Classical music might be thought of as sophisticated and classy, while Jazz might be thought of as artistic and refined. When putting these general assumptions to the test, several experiments show that playing specific music can impact perceptions too. For example, classical music can temporarily increase the perceived value of an item. In these situations, people projected some of the associations they had with classical music, e.g. sophistication, onto the item itself.

So for your next corporate event maybe you want to welcome attendees with a spot of classical music, or introduce your keynote speaker with it playing in the background, inferring sophistication and intelligence on everyone in the room as well as your speakers.

Music for your event

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Live entertainment during breaks can be a good energy booster for conference attendees. Chart toppers like the ones in our ‘most played’ list can work well in this environment, and can easily be played over an in-house speaker system at a reasonable level.

Here, a live band or DJ can really add something to your conference. Stay clear of big sounds and opt for a smaller set-up, as delegates still need to be able to network and recharge for their next seminar.

Music in exhibition halls

Using a hired musician in large exhibition halls can be a great way of creating a good vibe.

At the same time the room is likely to be very noisy from all the delegates networking with each other and talking to exhibitors. The latter of course, is exactly what you want.

After parties

Out of all the areas of your conference where you might add music, this is definitely where your delegates will be most relaxed, and might even venture out on the dance floor.

After parties are all about networking and having a really good time. This is also where the ‘most played list’ will feel most appropriate. You can hire a party band or DJ who incorporates them into their usual set-lists, or you could go for a more tailored option.