#R39 Skelton Exotic Sangria is a sultry, deep purply pink/magenta that is named for esteemed Lighting Designer Thomas R. Skelton. This color filter is well-loved by the lighting community for its impressive saturation and drama, and it is often used to create vibrant color in musicals, and concerts, and for lighting effects like faux neon.
The Late Lighting Designer Thomas Skelton redefined the art of lighting for dance. Skelton worked among and learned from greats such as Jean Rosenthal at the American Dance Festival and Robert Joffrey of the Joffrey Ballet, ultimately publishing The Handbook for Dance Stagecraft for Dance Magazine in the 1950s.
Disillusioned with the classic “deglamourizing” dance lighting techniques - open, airy stages flooded with all available light, etc. - Skelton challenged the norm. He embraced texture, body, and brought rich, jewel-like colors to dance stages – and his influence is still present on those stages today.
In 1969, Berkey-Colortran introduced a line of polyester color media called “Gelatran” that was discontinued in the late 1980s. The dissolution of Gelatran left Thomas Skelton in need of a replacement for one of his favorite colors: Gelatran #84 Belladonna Red. The filter created a highly saturated, vibrant, magenta-colored light that was perfect for dance stages. After exhausting all available replacement options, Skelton approached Rosco, and the color creation process began.
Once the magenta hue was perfected, the new color filter was added to the Roscolux line and Thomas Skelton was given the honor of naming this new color. Skelton is fondly remembered as a man with a flair for drama who was anything but conservative – as evidenced by his decision to name his new Roscolux filter “Exotic Sangria.” Rosco added the prefix “Skelton” to honor the man who helped create it and thus, #R39 Skelton Exotic Sangria was born.
Tragically, Thomas Skelton died of lung cancer in 1994 and never had to chance to light a ballet using his namesake color, but his legacy continues on in the Exotic Sangria-colored visions of lighting designers around the world.
One of the many examples of Skelton’s continuing legacy is how Lighting Designer Brandi Pick used #R39 Skelton Exotic Sangria in East Carolina University’s production of a dance piece entitled Gena, Gena! Brandi followed the lead dancer in the highly saturated color throughout the entirety of the show. She explained that her color choice was a way of emphasizing the attitude towards women in the film industry who were expected to be overly glamorous, romantic, and used only for love. "The pink was reflecting gender norms for women,” Brandi recalled, “and I wanted it as highly saturated as possible to help exaggerate that idea."
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