Aldo Gigli · Co-founder of the Mirano Continental · set designer and graphic artist

Light Panel & Improv League

The Light Panel, 1982

In the very early 1980s, around 1982, the Mirano Continental stage was fitted with a large light panel designed by Olivier Gossens-Bara: a screen made of hundreds of light dots switching on and off. At the time there were no LED panels, no flat screens, no plasma televisions; that wall of bulbs was a feat.

On this panel, the patterns moved. Aldo Gigli composed the first animatic models for it, drawn dot by dot on graph paper in his first-floor office on the Chaussée de Louvain, the house right next to the Mirano that housed the communication agency of the club's owners, Paul Sterck and Marco Rolland. Every ticked box matched a lamp: the drawing became a programme.

Among these models, a seagull whose wings beat up and down. Aldo spent long hours creating these little animations, frame by frame, before they blinked above the dance floor. The animation shown in this chapter is a digital reconstruction based on his archive drawing, set to an original royalty-free disco track.

The Animated Seagull, 2026 Reconstruction

Animated reconstruction based on the animatic model drawn by Aldo Gigli on graph paper: a seagull whose wings beat up and down, dot by dot, as it appeared on the light panel designed by Olivier Gossens-Bara at the Mirano Continental around 1982, here set to an original royalty-free disco track.

Black-and-white photograph, horizontal format. Overhead view of a Belgian improvisation league match at the Mirano Continental: three performers in striped referee jerseys on the lit central rink, surrounded on all four sides by some 500 spectators waving their voting cards, in a true cauldron atmosphere.Mirano Continental, from 1986. Private collection.

IMPRO, A LOT, PASSIONATELY... MADLY

The panel went on serving long after its first motifs. From 1986, the Belgian improvisation league, founded in 1984 after a tour by Quebec's LNI, made its home at the Mirano Continental and played its matches there for over ten years. On the rink: two teams of players in jerseys, a striped referee, a coach, and some 500 spectators voting with cards, in a true cauldron atmosphere. Bruno Bulté, a Mirano dancer, was one of its coaches; the league was then run, as Carl De Moncharline remembers it, by Pierre-André Itin.

For those nights, the light panel displayed two clapping hands, also drawn dot by dot, to call for the room's reaction. The second animation in this chapter is a reconstruction of it, made in the same graphic spirit as the seagull.

The Clapping Hands, 2026 Reconstruction

Animated reconstruction in the spirit of the Mirano Continental light panel: two clapping hands, drawn dot by dot in amber bulbs. This motif accompanied the Belgian improvisation league matches at the Mirano from 1986, calling for the audience's applause.

Flash programme by the Belgian improvisation league: the match concept explained, two teams of players, a referee, a coach, and an audience voting with cards. — The Improvisation Match Concept Explained

Press cutting. A ten-year review of the Belgian improvisation league with Eric De Staercke and Jean-Marie Cuvelier: some 200,000 spectators gathered at the Mirano Continental and the Cirque royal, one hundred and twenty professional actors and around 2,500 themes played since 1984. — La Libre Belgique, 12 November 1992: “The magic of the ephemeral celebrates its anniversary”

Press cutting. A feature on ten years of improvisation in Brussels: the first matches at the Halles de Schaerbeek, the annual championship set up by Alain Stevens and Jonathan Fox and played every Sunday in spring at the Mirano in Saint-Josse, the hockey-style refereeing of a match, and the rise of actors such as Eric De Staercke and Bernard Cogniaux. — Press, 1992: “Brussels, capital of improvisation - Impro, a lot, passionately... madly”

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