In this Volume:
-Dance and Fashion Podcast Part 2: Dress The Women Undress the Men- Graham to Mcqueen + Tutus Through Time
-Beatrix Potter Ballet WatchParty
The tutu evolved alongside society and the ballerina’s place on the stage, and this particular piece of ballet attire hold’s the imagination of fashion designer’s across the era- creating a kind of timeless chic in ballet core. Though the intersection of dance and fashion does NOT live only on ballet’s stages, it is also front and center in modern dance.
Martha Graham collaborated with Halston, he created work for her dances that were a type of character in the piece. Some costumes even kept their shape onstage once the dancers stepped out of them, literally holding their own. The work they did together also inspired pieces in his collections.
Take a look below at Diana Vishneva in Graham’s “Errand In The Maze”:
As compared to Model Karen Bjornson at Halston’s New York atelier in a caftan from his spring 1971 Halston Originals ready-to-wear collection.:
Then you have the work that Rei Kawakubo did with Merce Cunningham, a true collaborative risk in the piece “Scenario”:
On Europe’s contemporary stages, the late great master Alexander McQueen created costumes for none other than Sylvie Guillem, Robert Lepage and Russel Maliphant.
The piece they co-created revisits the story of the Chevalier d'Éon, the French author, diplomat and cross dressing spy.
McQueen designed transparent kimonos whose rigid crinoline structure was covered with organza. All but one has been lost.
McQueen true visual world bender whose runways shows could in and of themselves be considered ballets they so were legendary for their dramatic and avant-garde presentations, definitively defining fashion as an art form.
LISTEN TO THE FULL PODCAST AT THE TOP OF THIS PAGE
Watch Party:
Do you remember Frederick Ashton’s “Tales of Beatrix Potter”?
It was made into a film in the 70s but is still sometimes performed onstage in Europe (too rarely I’m afraid because of the difficulty of the costumes) but it’s one of my personal off the beaten path favs. Especially this time of year with the sweet hope of April.
If you have kids they’ll love it, it’s filled with joyful dancing pigs, frogs, ducks and foxes and other unusual (for ballet) animals. You can watch it here on MARQUEE TV and I’ll post a clip of my favorite character Jeremy Frog below.
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