Intense Lighting Chooses Robe FOOTSIE2 Slims

	(l-r) Robe ANZ's Darren McLanders with Intensity Lighting's Ian Garrard. Photo: Louise Stickland

Intense Lighting is a rental company based in Botany, Sydney, Australia. It is owned and operated by founder Ian Garrard, who started it in 2017, having previously worked in a variety of other industry roles and with some high-profile theatre / performance companies.

Coming from this background, he saw a sector ripe for high-quality rental and dry hire products that are rider-friendly, coupled with outstanding service-focused on the needs and demands of theatre and dance productions.

One of the ways Garrard has led the company has been through investment in products found to be innovative and offer longevity and reliability.

This led him recently to Robe FOOTSIE2 Slims.

Twelve were purchased midway through 2025 to service a remount production for Queensland Ballet's Trilogy season in Brisbane. This is a successful triple bill of three stand-alone short works by three acclaimed choreographers -- Cathy Marston, Jack Lister, and Christopher Bruce. The season was lit by lighting designer Matt Marshall and director Alex Berlage.

FOOTSIE2 Slims provided the solution for what Matt and Alex wanted in terms of a low-profile footlight luminaire, bringing all the advantages of quality LED illumination to that specific shadow-eliminating position around the front of the stage, almost invisible to the audience.

"FOOTSIE2 was properly designed for theatre and is a newer and better option than products we were previously using for this style of effect," Marshall comments.

Garrard could also see how useful this product could be for theatrical and dance shows generally, where sightlines are always challenging. The FOOTSIE2 Slim is also IP rated, so great for outdoor shows, in addition to taking up minimal stage space and being very discreet.

Since that first production, Intense Lighting's FOOTSIE2 Slims have been out on a steady stream of other shows.

Garrard has been aware of Robe for many years and also had some good previous experiences with the products after the company purchased 32 Spiider LED wash beams in 2021. These were for general stock and because they appear frequently on riders.

"Lighting designers like them a lot, the moonflower effect is great, making it more than a standard LED wash fixture, and they are one of our hardest working products," he reveals, adding that the Spiiders are out all but three or four weeks of the year.