Dance & Fashion Series

Fashion as resistance, new operas & losing ballet icons.

In this volume:

-Dance & Fashion: Notes and exhibitions

-What’s Onstage: A new opera on Spanish writer Lorca

-Something to Ponder: Generosity & arts funding.

-Ins and Outs: Losing 2 ballet icons- gaining 1

Dance + Fashion Series & Exhibitions

Why are fashion exhibitions so successful?

Fashion and dance, even in their most unobtainable forms are somehow relatable, we have bodies so we can imagine them in clothes, in costumes, in characters and steps. We see our selves in the work.

These art forms have been fascinating each other for centuries. Sister arts, fashion and ballet deal in dreams and the idealized human form. Of course there’s obvious crossover between fashion and costume design and many of the most revered designers have found their way to the stage, including: Chanel, Valentino and Christian Lacroix.

France’s National Center for Theater & Costume Design has an exhibition on Lacroix’s costumes for theater and opera on view through January 2026. *They also happen to have a Nureyev exhibition as part of their permanent collection.

Next week we’ll be starting a series of podcasts and videos on dance and fashion- just in time for the Met Gala (annual fundraiser for the Met Museum’s Costume Institute and NY fashion’s biggest night out).

2025’s Met Costume Institute’s exhibition theme is “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style”. The timing is a chef’s kiss piece of accidental resistance as most organizations are being forced to dismantle DEI programs.

The Louvre in Paris—hoping to attract a new audience, as the Met has so successfully done with its Costume Institute—has also joined the fashion movement with its first-ever exhibition woven into the decorative arts galleries. If Paris is in the cards for you, you still have a few more months to see it.

This dress from Balenciaga's Demna Collection Prêt-à-Porter Printemps/Été 2020 is part of the Louvre's new "Louvre Couture".

What’s Onstage? Opera Edition

Hailed by the Los Angeles Times as “one of the most moving and meaningful operas of our time”:

A 1 hour and 20 minute company premiere “Ainadamar”.

Federico García Lorca was one of Spain’s most influential literary voices. His plays and poems—rich in symbolism, emotion, and political undercurrents, encased themes of identity, repression, and fate. He famously moved in avant-garde and surrealist circles with artists like Salvador Dalí and Luis Buñuel.

When Spain descended into civil war, Lorca’s artistic and sexual defiance made him a threat to the rising fascist regime. He was executed by Nationalist forces in 1936. His body was never found.

Playing at LA OPERA April 26-May 18th. Tickets here.

Something to Ponder

There’s a forever conversation going on about how to get new audiences into classical seats (across all genres).

Writer

Rebecca Deczynski

made a great point in her recent newsletter on Opera Philadelphia’s success in completely selling the house with “pick your price” tickets.

Noting that even though that’s not always amazing for ticket sales numbers, it is a WAY better story to sell to funders and corporate donor’s because they feel like they are supporting an entire city seeing productions instead of subsidizing a Saturday night for the “already can afford its”. As Deczynski mentions, it was such a success in re: fundraising, that the opera was able to raise 7 million and cancel its debt.

Maybe other arts orgs could take the hint: generosity sells.

In and Outs: Gaining 1 Star Losing 2

American Ballet Theater is losing Cassandra Trenary after 15 years. The dramatic actress of a ballerina is leaving NY to follow Alessandra Ferri as when she takes the reins at Vienna State Ballet. It’s looking like Ferri’s tenure is already putting the company on the map and she hasn’t even started.

Followed by a greater (in its permanence) tragedy, ballerina Gillian Murphy will retire from ABT after 29 years onstage. Murphy is at this point an American artistic monument, she was inspiration (and aspiration) for 3 generations of dancers. As all dancers do, she carries the look and technique of her times in her body, never again to be seen once they leave the stage. Though you can still see her in NYC until her final performance on July 18th.

Famous Russian ballerina Olga Smirnova will guest with ABT this spring, June 21st in Giselle. Most Russian artists have been literally and figuratively cancelled in the US, Smirnova spoke against Putin and fled Russia at the start of the Russia/Ukraine war. She joined Dutch National Ballet and paid a great psychological and personal price for her principles as you can read about here.

Video of Smirnova in Raymonda Variation.

Olga Smirnova

Photo by Darian Volkova, courtesy of Dutch National Ballet

Want to know more about a certain dancer, or share a performance/exhibition? Hit reply and we’ll take a look.