| Brief Description |
| David Atkins Enterprises Pty Ltd is a live event and theatrical production company which has been creating and producing large-scale ceremonies, arena events, installations, themed entertainment, theatrical, televised and live productions worldwide for over 20 years. We are a small team of creative practitioners: storytellers, visionaries, artistic directors and designers. We conceive, create and translate our clients’ dreams into reality. Supported by choreographers, writers, visual content producers, lighting designers, sound engineers, technical specialists and a full suite of production and logistics services, we bring great ideas to life – in any physical or digital environment, to any scale, anywhere in the world. From the Olympics to World Expo, corporations to countries, DAE continually raises the bar in global event production. |
| Profile |
David Atkins Enterprises (DAE) is a company with more than 20 years experience in the creation and production of major international events. 2010 was a banner year for DAE; having produced the Opening, Closing and Victory Ceremonies for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games, DAE created and the Outdoor Opening Ceremony for World Expo 2010, Shanghai China, in only four months. DAE thus produced the two largest events of 2010 and was recognised in three Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards for the Vancouver Ceremonies, and won the Best Export category at the Australian Event Awards.
The Vancouver Olympic Winter Games Organizing Committee (VANOC) chose DAE after an exhaustive selection process against local and international competitors. We believe we were selected because of our innovative approach to local cultural inclusion and our proven record of working under the cultural umbrella of the host country. Similarly, the organisers of World Expo 2010 Shanghai were deeply impressed with DAE’S commitment to Chinese culture and the inclusion and cooperation with Chinese cultural practitioners and technical experts.
DAE produced the Doha 2006 Asian Games Ceremonies in Qatar, the Sydney 2000 Olympic Opening and Closing Ceremonies, the Manchester 2002 Commonwealth Games Melbourne Handover Ceremony and the Sydney 2000 Olympic Closing Ceremony Sydney Harbour Fireworks Spectacular. These Ceremonies include some of the largest events ever staged. The Sydney Summer Olympic Ceremonies featured a cast of over 15,000 performers; the Doha Asian Games cast was in excess of 8,000.
DAE has produced major commercial events including the largest Military Tattoo ever toured, (The Australian Bicentennial Military Tattoo, 1988) Australia’s most complex arena event (“The Man From Snowy River Arena Spectacular” with a cast of 250 performers and 50 horses), 3 Football Grand Final half-time Spectaculars with casts in excess of 2000 performers, and over 40 full-scale first-class Musicals touring Australia, New Zealand, Asia, Japan, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Canada and the United States of America.
These productions were all delivered on time and on budget and, in the case of the commercial productions, were all financial and critical successes. DAE has, in the course of the last 20 years, developed a world-class team equipped with the strategies, structures, protocols, experience and skills to ensure the timely and satisfactory delivery of the entire scope of major production services.
David Atkins is recognised as one of Australia’s most experienced and awarded producers, directors and choreographers. As the founder and CEO of DAE he has been central to all of the company’s events as Artistic Director and Executive Producer. David’s career spans four decades, from starring roles in over 20 musicals, to his current position as CEO of DAE. David has won numerous industry awards in Australia, USA and the UK and, in recognition of his outstanding work as Artistic Director and Producer of the Sydney Olympic Ceremonies, David was awarded the Gold Olympic Pin by Juan Antonio Samaranch, President of the IOC. In 2003 David was awarded the Order of Australia Medal by HRH Queen Elizabeth II for services to the Australian entertainment industry. In 2010, the Australian Event Awards honoured David with a Lifetime Achievement award.
David Atkins Enterprises’ Artistic Director, Ignatius Jones, is one of the world’s leading Major Event Directors. After a career as a writer, journalist and performer Ignatius went on to be the Artistic Director of six Sydney Harbour New Years Eve Celebrations, still recognised as one of the premier NYE events in the world. Ignatius then collaborated with David Atkins on the Sydney 2000 Olympic Ceremonies and Closing Harbour Spectacular, at the time the largest pyrotechnic event in history. In 2002, Ignatius became the only person to direct the birth of a country when he was appointed as the Artistic Director of the Independence Ceremony for the world’s youngest nation, the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, (East Timor). Ignatius was also Co-Artistic Director with David Atkins on the Ceremonies of the Doha 2006 Asian Games, the Ceremonies of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, and the Outdoor Opening Ceremony of the 2010 World Expo Shanghai China.
DAE has unrivalled experience working in many and varied cultural landscapes. We have a solid track record of working outside our Anglo-Australian cultural heritage with harmony and respect.
For the 2000 Sydney Olympics, DAE brought together, for the first time, Aboriginal Nations from the length and breadth of the continent. Together with Aboriginal Australia’s leading cultural practitioners, DAE created the largest indigenous cultural presentation ever staged in Australia with over 1000 Aboriginal performers from 20 regions and over 100 tribal groups. The ceremony presented the world a country with great respect for its indigenous peoples and traditions, and made great strides towards meaningful reconciliation.
For the Independence Celebrations of East Timor, Ignatius Jones brought together the cultural authorities of a nation that had just undergone 25 years of oppression and civil war, and created a Timorese creative team for the first time in the nation’s history.
In 2006 DAE introduced the City of Doha to the world, and proclaimed the small country of Qatar to be a bold, cutting-edge nation fully engaged with technology – but deeply rooted in and informed by an Arab and Islamic culture stretching back thousands of years.
In creating and producing the Opening, Closing and Victory Ceremonies of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games, DAE worked with the cultural authorities of Canada, a nation with a vast landscape, an immensely complex Aboriginal (Native American) heritage, two official languages and cultures, and the most varied multicultural composition in the world. DAE produced a uniquely Canadian set of Ceremonies that showcased this extraordinary nation to the world.
In Shanghai, DAE worked closely with an array of Chinese directors, composers and designers – and very closely with the organisers of the Shanghai World Expo – to create the largest outdoor event in history, in a way that uniquely Chinese yet groundbreaking on an international scale.
In all of these culturally diverse International Major Events DAE managed through its skill, processes and its commitment to cultural integrity, to create events that are completely of their place and time. |
| Major Events |
• World Expo 2010 Shanghai, China - Outdoor Opening Ceremony, Executive Producer & Artistic Director
• Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games - Opening, Closing & Victory Ceremonies, Executive Producer & Artistic Director
• 15th Asian Games Doha 2006 - Opening & Closing Ceremonies, Executive Producer & Artistic Director
• Independence Ceremonies of the Democratic Republic Of East Timor 2002 - Executive Producer & Artistic Director
• Manchester 2002 Commonwealth Games – Melbourne Handover Ceremony, Executive Producer, Artistic Director & Choreographer
• Sydney 2000 Olympic Games - Opening & Closing Ceremonies, Producer & Artistic Director
• Sydney 2000 Olympic Games - Sydney Harbour Closing Ceremony Fireworks Spectacular, Producer & Artistic Director
• Millennium Celebrations of the City Of Sydney, 1999-2000 - Artistic Director |
| |
|
| More Information at |
| http://www.daeglobal.com |
|
|
|
