The Gerriets firm has been concerned within the theater and efficiency business for 80 years. Initially based by Hans Gerriets as a textile wholesale enterprise in Germany in 1946, the corporate has manufactured theater materials and curtains, projection screens, and dance flooring. Since then, the corporate has shifted its focus to bounce flooring choices, and is keen about listening to know-how, analysis and product growth.
And now, the corporate has a brand new web site, gerrietsdancefloors.com, the place clients can simply order provides and request quotes for brand new Marley and sprung flooring. Gerriets stays to be a family-run enterprise since its starting days, and giving its clients customized responses is a vital a part of its companies.
Right here, Dance Informa speaks with Molly Sugg and Invoice Brown of the Gross sales and Advertising and marketing staff at Gerriets, to study extra concerning the evolution of the corporate, its star merchandise and extra.
How did you every get your begin within the dance/theater business?
Molly Sugg
“Since I used to be younger, I at all times cherished to bounce! I grew up as a aggressive dancer and taught and assisted lessons for a few years. I really feel like my entire childhood revolved round dance, so after I graduated school, I didn’t wish to go away! I began working with Gerriets Dance Flooring in the summertime of 2023, and it has been so rewarding attending to see studios and performing firms carry their visions to life!”
Invoice Brown
“I began doing theater in center faculty with a neighborhood kids’s theatre and went backwards and forwards between appearing and backstage work all through highschool. I even dabbled in dance a bit after being requested to be The Nutcracker in a neighborhood dance studio’s manufacturing. However I finally determined to dive totally into the technical facet of theater and went to Rutgers for it. After graduating and dealing as an overhire stagehand (and rolling my share of Marley), I acquired a job packing and pulling curtains and dance flooring on the Gerriets Warehouse. I shortly converted to gross sales and advertising and marketing and have been serving to purchasers follow their artwork for over 11 years!”
Inform us concerning the early formation of Gerriets. What forms of merchandise and enterprise was the give attention to at first?
Sugg and Brown
“Gerriets has been concerned with the theatre and efficiency business for many years. Hans Gerriets initially based the corporate as a textile wholesale enterprise in post-war Germany in 1946, and in 1949, he managed the reconstruction of the Freiburg Theater.
Within the Nineteen Fifties and Sixties, his son, Walter Gerriets, started growing merchandise particularly for theaters, together with our OPERA projection display, made particularly for the Paris Opera. He additionally positioned a give attention to providing theaters the ‘full bundle’ and launched our theater know-how and tools. In 1975, our Marley flooring line started with a conveyable, roll-out, reversible dance flooring, often called our VARIO flooring, designed to supply theaters with a clean, even floor. Whereas our product vary targeted on the theater business to start with, now we have grown our authentic product strains to serve individuals who work in structure, occasions and the performing arts!”
When and why did the large shift to bounce flooring come about?
Sugg and Brown
“In 2002, Hannes Gerriets joined the administration staff at Gerriets, specializing in know-how, analysis and product growth. Throughout this time, we additional developed our dance flooring choices, together with excessive gloss flooring for occasions and sprung flooring for stage use. About 10 years in the past, it turned clear to us that dance studios had been searching for the identical protected, high-quality flooring utilized in theaters. The flooring we had been producing for over 25 years had been working properly in theaters, and the studios that had put in sang its praises. So, we began advertising and marketing it particularly to studios, and going to bounce commerce reveals to take heed to the particular wants of dancers and dance studio house owners. We realized not each dance studio is identical, so we began creating extra specialised flooring for studios that required various things.
Since then, now we have persistently been updating our flooring to change into higher and higher. Most just lately, a fiber reinforcement layer was added to most of our Marley flooring utilized by dancers. The additional layer permits the ground to roll out flat quick, and helps forestall any bubbles or ripples from popping up due to temperature adjustments.
We additionally launched our VARIO BEAT. We seen that there have been Marleys that mentioned they did all of it, however faucet dancers had been annoyed they weren’t getting the identical top quality sounds they needed. With the introduction of the VARIO BEAT, dancers can have one of the best of each worlds. The hardened floor makes faucet sounds crisp and clear, whereas the marginally embossed floor offers dancers the texture of a conventional Marley, not too sticky and never too slippery.”
What are a few of Gerriets’ high promoting merchandise? And who’re your greatest clients?
Sugg and Brown
“Theaters, studios, competitions, touring firms, colleges, artwork and present reveals – these are the kinds of consumers we work with most frequently. We’ve labored on initiatives massive and small, and are capable of finding an answer for nearly everybody.
The VARIO BEAT and VARIO PRO are two of our hottest merchandise. They’re each being utilized by dance competitions, studios {and professional} firms all over the world. The VARIO PRO is the lightest dimensionally steady Marley in the marketplace, making it nice for touring productions. Performers fell in love with the VARIO BEAT when it was launched due to its versatility and the way properly it really works for faucet dancers.
We don’t supply set up companies, however all of our flooring are straightforward to put in for anybody with common helpful abilities. We give detailed directions along with your order, and are completely satisfied to assist with any questions clients could have alongside the best way.”
Dance flooring is extremely vital! How is the work that Gerriets does so rewarding to you personally?
Sugg
“It’s fairly superb to now work with studio house owners and professionals I grew up admiring. They’re altering lives by means of dance, each within the studio and on stage, and being a part of what helps that work, actually from the bottom up, is what makes this so rewarding.”
Brown
“I get pleasure from speaking to clients from throughout and serving to them discover a resolution to their wants. Whether or not it’s a brand new dance studio making an attempt to determine the ins and outs of a dance flooring, or a Broadway present needing a really particular colour flooring for his or her manufacturing, it’s nice serving to artists of every kind develop their imaginative and prescient.”
Any thrilling new merchandise or developments that the corporate is engaged on?
Sugg and Brown
“Gerriets’ VARIO CARE Marley flooring cleaners are the most recent issues we’re introducing to our line! We developed this line to assist studio house owners preserve their flooring wanting and dealing higher for longer.
Use VARIO Day by day Clear as your nightly cleansing resolution to make sure that all mud, grime and particles are eliminated out of your house! A very powerful a part of protecting your Marley lasting lengthy is to be proactive with VARIO Day by day Clear.
VARIO Deep Clear is an environment friendly strategy to take away built-up grime, scuff marks, and a few stains with out damaging the floor and integrity of your Marley flooring!
VARIO Defend is a matte polish for completely cleaned flooring. When dry, the flooring look polished to perfection with an antislip matte end!”
What else ought to we all know concerning the Gerriets firm and mission?
Sugg and Brown
“Gerriets has at all times been a family-run enterprise, and that private strategy is a part of who we’re. Once you attain out, you’ll hear again from actual individuals who take the time to know your house and your wants. Many people come from the performing arts and theater world ourselves, so we all know these areas as a result of we’ve labored in them. That have helps us information every buyer towards the answer that’s proper for them.”
For extra on Gerriets and to buy the dance flooring merchandise, go to gerrietsdancefloors.com.
By Laura Di Orio of Dance Informa.
Sponsored content material.
