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: atlas reflection
date: 12/2019
choreographer: Wesley Demaron
background
what: fall dance concert: out of many
location: ucsb hatlen theater
time frame: 10 weeks
ensemble, 6 female dancers
the concept of this dance piece is portraying a statue which focuses on the position of pain, organic, humanity, and the idealized corporeal form. it is an abstract piece that leaves the audience to determine what they think they see through from the performance. it focuses on dancers' bodies, changes of movements and positions on stage to carry out the image of a statue.
process
overall process: meetings, presentations, discussions, pencil draft, watercolor rendering, ordering, fittings, dress rehearsals
a week is given to prepare for a design presentation after Wesley Dameron, my choreographer's presentation on our first production meeting. since then, i have weekly meetings with my choreographer, costume director, and the production team to keep track and update everyone of my process on my costume design. moreover, i go to dance rehearsal at least once a week to help with my design process and decisions.
during my meetings with Wesley, we talked about the deeper meanings of the piece and how he comes up with the statue idea so that i can understand and picture what he is seeing. after that, i design for the costume and communicate with him whether this is what we both feel satisfied with before moving on to the process of building the piece.
my meetings with my costume director, Ann Bruice, are to update and discuss what my design is and how i can achieve what i want to do. first, i come up with a design, and Ann tells me which area i can draw better to present my design. then, we talk about what kind of fabric is the best to showcase the result i want. afterward, Ann taught me the process of dyeing fabric and what to be cautious of during the process. finally, we put everything together for fittings and dress rehearsals.
design
the two-piece costume is built with a turtle-neck leotard that has an open back with a mesh chiffon skirt with three variations of styles based on their pairings. the tight leotards allow the dancers to show the shape of their bodies as to draw attention to their positions like a statue. the drippy skirts give a flowy movement to present the drippiness and polished side of a statue. the original idea is to have a neutral color that is closed to the dancers' skin tone. therefore, i decided to dye the piece individually to match the dancers' skin tone to bring out the idea of a statue being made out of one piece of stone.
headwraps elongate the whole body as it is extended vertically to create the feeling of a tall standing statue, it also holds onto the hair of the dancers to avoid them disturbing the overall image of a statue. dancers are wearing heavy contour below their cheek and concealed eyebrows to make them look like a sculpture from far.
challenges
as this is my first production, having only 10 weeks to start from 0 to the final design makes me nervous. the order of the dye comes in late and we dye the skirts while there is a fire going on in the mountains a couple of days before the first dress rehearsal. however, with proper time management and guidelines, i have come to achieve what i want to accomplish.
the decision on whom to wear which style of variations and how it might affect the performance takes me the longest time to figure out. it is important to understand that there are various groupings throughout the dance and chances of having someone next to the other wearing the same style might occur. hence, i constantly communicate with Wesley and observe carefully during dance rehearsals to decide which dancers should wear what kind of styles, also based on their color so that the piece looks seamless and harmonize with all sorts of groupings.
one of the major challenges is to color match the skin tone of the dancers and the dyeing process. i use a catalog to decide which color of leotard matches their skin the closest and dye my skirts based on the leotard colors. since the skirts come in different styles, the fabric content is different. hence, we have to mix a lot of different baches of colors to test before dyeing and the dyeing time is also different from style to style. the elastic band around the waist is also a different fabric that absorbs colors more than the skirt which is different from what i am thinking. yet, in the end, i think the band color enhances the overall presentation.
production
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