iLuminate, a nationally recognized dance company, graced the Jones Performing Arts Stage on Tuesday night.
iLuminate, which features dancers in glow-in-the-dark suits, performed choreography and illusions in pitch-black darkness. Jacob, the main character, leads the audience on an epic quest to find his lost paintbrush. Along the way, Jacob finds his friends and confidence again.
“The lead character, Jacob, is going through some troubles,” Bob Brockett, spokesman for iLuminate, explained. “All of his friends are kind of neglecting him and he has this one friend that is really trying to uplift him and then out of nowhere, he gets his paintbrush stolen and he’s in this search in a dark place and she’s the one that brings him back to life.”
iLuminate made it’s premier in 2011, debuting on ‘America’s Got Talent,’ and was labeled as “one of the best new acts in America.” Following their stint on AGT, they performed on the New World Stages in New York City as an off-Broadway show. Now, iLuminate is touring.
“This is the first show in a three-show tour for us,” Brockett said. “Because of everything that we have to do to get ready for a show, we have to take a lot of time in between them, so we are kind of trying to figure out how we want to go about touring.”
The costumes for each of the dancers range in price, but take weeks to assemble and get together. Brockett estimates that a typical costume, indivdually costs between $12-$15,000.
On a typical day of the tour, Brocket said that iLumminate spends hours getting ready for the show that night.
“We spend a lot of time just getting everything together on the front end,” Brockett said. “And even on the back end, it’s very important for us to be careful and go slow because each costume is so delicate and expensive to maintain.”
In addition to ‘America’s Got Talent,’ iLuminate and its artistic and technical director, Miral Kotb, have been featured on Good Morning America, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Made with Code events and more. The group comes to Ouachita from an international tour, including such destinations as Hong Kong and Malaysia.
“We’re just really excited to be out on the road and getting to show other people what we’ve got,” Brockett said. “We want everyone to see what kind of dancing we can bring to each show.”
