{"id":173949,"date":"2026-02-21T05:26:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T05:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/173949\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T05:26:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T05:26:11","slug":"where-ballet-meets-blockbuster-technology-inside-an-austin-warehouse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/173949\/","title":{"rendered":"Where Ballet Meets Blockbuster Technology Inside an Austin Warehouse"},"content":{"rendered":"

AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 It looks like the glittering Palace of Versailles \u2014 the Hall of Mirrors glowing, Marie Antoinette\u2019s chambers alive with candlelight and couture.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not France.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a warehouse in Austin.<\/p>\n

Inside Virtigo Pictures Studios, cutting-edge virtual production is blending ballet with blockbuster-style technology. The studio is filming a trailer for “Marie Antoinette: Vampire Queen of Versailles,” a new world premiere by Ballet Austin\u2019s Stephen Mills \u2014 and they\u2019ve digitally recreated 18th-century France to do it.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we have a cinema robot in here from RE Motion, who’s our robot partner. And on that we have our own digital cinema camera,\u201d said Justin Kirchhoff, chief technical officer at Virtigo Pictures.<\/p>\n

The shoot demands repeatable shots.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe robot’s the perfect way to do that,\u201d Kirchhoff said. \u201cIt’s repeatable shots. It\u2019s what it\u2019s really good at. So, we can do the same shot over and over and over until we get it right.\u201d<\/p>\n

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To bring the scenes to life, the team uses Unreal Engine \u2014 the same software that powers major video games.<\/p>\n

That means dancers can perform inside Versailles without ever leaving Texas.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe wonderful thing about virtual production is, we’re shooting \u2014 we’re in Versailles Palace in Austin, Texas, in a warehouse,\u201d said Paul Michael Bloodgood, director of creative services at Ballet Austin. \u201cLike, you can’t do that, right, anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

This marks Virtigo\u2019s fourth collaboration with Ballet Austin. Their first project recreated the world of Edgar Allan Poe. Now, they\u2019ve brought Versailles back to life with a modern twist.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the last five years, the technology has just exploded,\u201d Kirchhoff said. \u201cWe have LED walls from a manufacturer in China, a robot from Japan, a camera from America \u2014 combining all these technologies to create this art.\u201d<\/p>\n

Old-world ballet. New-world tech.<\/p>\n

And in a Texas warehouse, the future of performance is on stage.<\/p>\n

“Marie Antoinette: Vampire Queen of Versailles” runs at the Long Center from March 27 through March 29.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 It looks like the glittering Palace of Versailles \u2014 the Hall of Mirrors glowing, Marie…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":173950,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":{"0":"post-173949","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-austin","9":"tag-austin-headlines","10":"tag-austin-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}