| Dragone | |
| Type: | Private company |
| Industry: | Entertainment |
| Founder: | Franco Dragone |
| Location City: | Las Vegas, United States of America & Luxembourg |
| Area Served: | Worldwide |
Dragone is a Las Vegas and Luxembourg based creative company specializing in the creation of large scale theater shows.[1] It was founded in 2000 by Franco Dragone. Formerly known as Franco Dragone Entertainment Group (FDEG), the company became Dragone in 2014.[2] The company, previously based in La Louvière, Belgium, has created in excess of forty "permanent shows", in addition to events in more than 12 countries across Europe, the Middle East, in the United States, South America and Asia.
The company was founded in 2000 by Franco Dragone, who had acquired experience in the circus industry in the ’80s and ‘90s, creating many shows with the Cirque du Soleil.[3] [4] Since its foundation, Dragone has been responsible for the creation and production of dozens of shows and original events.
The company was based in the Belgian city of La Louvière, the region where Franco Dragone moved to with his family when he was a young child in the 1950s.[5] The presence of the company has showcased the city internationally,[6] through local actions and events. Dragone has also captured attention due to the visits and participation of celebrities in their shows, such as Sting,[7] Jeffrey Katzenberg[8] or Celine Dion.[9]
"Décrocher la lune" is an event organised by Dragone, which seeks to combine entertainment and social concerns in a manner which includes participatory action by the community. In March 2000, the first such “Décrocher la lune” was held in March 2000, in La Louvière.[10] Other iterations of the festival took place in 2006, 2009, 2012 and 2015. Since 2014, the scheme has been renamed to the “Agence Lunaire”, which is now responsible for the project.[11]
Created in 2004, the Festival 5 sur 5 offered young directors from around the world to express their point of view on La Louvière through short films. The project was managed by the non-profit organization Espace Dragone, which represented the company's citizen base. The project successfully ran for thirteen consecutive years.[12] [13] [14]
In October 2012, the company premises were searched.[15] Franco Dragone faced charges for tax evasion; the case is still under investigation and the judicial investigation is not complete.[16] Between 2016 and 2017, an unfavorable economic environment resulted in Dragone experiencing significant cash flow difficulties.[17] To maintain the activity in its Belgian base, and to save the jobs of its employees, the company engaged itself in a procedure in judicial reorganization (PRJ), which will be ultimately approved by the Commercial Court of Mons, which will pronounce the sustainability of the activity.[18]
The so-called permanent shows are the hallmarks of the company. They are intended to be performed for a minimum period of 10 years, typically in theaters specifically built for Dragone shows.[19] The shows heavily incorporate technology and special effects.[20] These shows include several types of performances inspired by traditional and contemporary circus. Dragone has specialized in the development of aquatic theater, under the stage of which hides a swimming pool of several million liters, allowing the use of a third play area, in addition to the aerial and aquatic ones.[21] The shows are intricately developed by various teams within the company, including the following units: Casting, Talents & Trends, Architecture & Design, Illustration and Video, Costumes.[22]
Shows organised by the company include the following that can be broadly categorized into three divisions:
In March 2003, the new Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas held the premiere of Celine Dion’s A New Day..., a show created and directed by Franco Dragone. Celine Dion had previously seen and loved O[23] and she even temporarily moved to Belgium so the two could closely collaborate on the show she dreamed of[24] ... In this show, says the artistic director, “I see Celine as a satellite that captures the images of another world and sends them back to the audience. The stage becomes a secret universe that she shares very intimately with the audience”; while Celine Dion thinks the world of its “magician”.[25] The show was performed every night for five years in front of a full house.[26]
In 2005, Le Rêve, entirely conceived in the workshops of La Louvière, took place in the setting of Steve Wynn’s casino hotel, the Wynn Las Vegas. The aquatic scene is surrounded by more than 2000 seats and contains over 3500m³ of water. The dome rises 25m from the stage.[27] This show is very intimate despite the technical means implemented, since the farthest of the two thousand spectators, in the fourteenth row, is only twelve meters from the stage.[28]
Among the projects, contacts were gradually established with the owners of the Lido, a famous cabaret located on the Champs-Élysées and the service company Sodexo. And in the beginning of 2013, the first auditions were held in Paris. The new performers of the troupe were selected during a rigorous casting process while the Lido transformation work started. In March 2015, the day before the premier, the costumes created by Nicolas Vaudelet[29] were transported to Paris for the final fittings. When the curtain rose a completely new show was presented to the audience; a revue of a new kind, very rock, leading the audience to discover an eternal Paris to the music of Saule and Yvan Cassar, other faithful accomplices of Franco Dragone.[30]
The premiere of “La Perle” took place on September 13, 2017 in the heart of the Al Habtoor City Resort.[31] La Perle is the first Las Vegas style permanent show of this scale in the UAE,[32] performed in an aquatic theater, designed by Jean Rabasse and the Dragone Studio, with 1300 seats and 450 performances a year.[33] For the artistic director Franco Dragone, La Perle is intended to present Dubai as “a laboratory of the future where people of diverse cultures create something spectacular together”.[34] Several celebrities like Sheikh Mohammed bin Rachid Al Maktoum,[35] Lindsay Lohan and Ronaldinho[36] attended the show.
In the fall of 2010 in the theater of extraordinary dimensions of the complex “City of Dreams”, Macau, the premier of, “The House of Dancing Water” (THODW), a permanent water show, took place.[37] Created, designed and developed in La Louvière and rehearsed in Alfacam's studios,[38] near Antwerp, Belgium, marked the beginning of a new milestone in the history of Dragone: the entry into Asia.
This first show on Chinese soil came about after a meeting between Franco Dragone and Lawrence Ho, co-chairman and CEO of Melco Crown Entertainment,[39] which will open a new resort “City of Dreams”. During the first five years of its operation, THODW welcomed more than 3 million spectators[40] and won four prestigious awards in the world of design and international marketing.[41]
The Macau experience confirmed the international vocation of the Company. In the process, the company is implementing a completely new type of contract and of an unprecedented scale with the powerful Dalian Wanda Group, the Chinese leader in commercial real estate development, luxury hotels and cultural industry, and chaired by Wang Jianlin. This contract covers the design, creation, production and operation of several unique shows in different Chinese cities, for a minimum of ten years[42]
The Han show has been paying tribute to the essence of Han culture since opening in December, 2014.
The lantern-shaped theater that houses the show has forever changed the urban landscape of Wuhan, capital of the Hubei Province. Inspired by the typical lines of the so-called “red lanterns”, the theater was designed by world-renowned architect Mark Fisher and his team at Stufish.[43] The theater is more than 70 meters high and 100 meters wide on each side offers pedestrians and spectators a real outdoor show with the ballet of lights illuminating its facade.[44]
At the beginning of each performance the 2000 spectators discover the swimming pool, which holds 10 million liters of water, hidden under the stage thanks to a unique system that allows the seats to move, modifying the configuration of the room.[45] The 95 artists, from all disciplines, selected by the casting department at Dragone, perform 10 shows per week.[46]
Now, in Langfang, near Beijing, in a studio built to train the artists for the show, training and formation is being developed with the support of a Beijing's university, on a model that should extend to other regions of the globe.[47]
In 2015, Dragone created and produced the second show commissioned by the Wanda Group. The Dai Show is a tribute to a world where man still lives in harmony with nature: that of the Dai people.[48] This is the traditional beneficial energy that fueled the show and inspired the construction of its theater[49] in Xishuangbanna, southwest China, on the border with Burma and Laos.
Over time, the company progressed in the diversification of its activities. Departments within the company, such as the illustration department or Dragone Costumes[50] can take on contracts independently of the parent company. For example, for Holliday on Ice - Ice Age[51] and Peter Pan - The Never Ending Story, in Abu Dhabi.
While the main company is venturing into new challenges such as cabaret, touring shows with singers, lyrical art (training, opera creation)[52] or the artistic direction of theme parks.
Between 2012 and 2015, Dragone invested in the world of traditional cabaret with the show Taboo. Mixing sophisticated and sensual choreography with sexy acrobatic performances, Taboo invited the audience to a mischievous trip to “Cubic”, the Cabaret set up in the heart of Macau's City of Dreams complex.[53] Audiences could witness pole dancing, striptease, hand-to-hand, dance and performances involving fire highlighted by an important work on sound, light and especially video projections.[54] The biggest names in Cabaret and Burlesque contributed to the fame of Taboo, such as Dita Von Teese and the Bluebell Girls from the Lido in Paris.[55]
For the second time in more than a decade, Dragone created a show for the popstar: Philip Kirkorov, a Russian artist who has won 5 World Music Awards. For this creation entitled “Я” (Me), the 30 songs of the show were all revisited to breathe new life into Kirkorov's popular hits, without betraying their original spirit, deeply rooted in the Russian soul. The premiere of the Kirkorov's international tour took place on March 18, 2016, in the prestigious theater of the Grand Kremlin Palace.[56]
Franco Dragone managed the artistic direction of an innovative theme park, in a partnership with the Rixos Hotels group.[57] The Land of Legends, Turkey’s largest theme park, opened during the summer of 2016 in the city of Antalya. For Dragone, this opportunity allowed him to develop a creative concept, characters, performances and a world where the visitor, as the viewer on other stages, is invited to enter the park and experience their own legend.[58]