Friday, February 21, 2020
Behind the Seams: Ballet Costumes Carry an Embodied History
Pointe: Traditionally, ballet costumes are made to have a life of 20 to 30 years. But they sometimes remain in use for much longer, being worn and altered to fit dozens of dancers. Multiple rows of hooks and bars show this progression, but it's more apparent inside the costume, where numerous labels can be found bearing the names of all past wearers.
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6 comments:
The amount of sharing and tradition that is so integral to both opera and ballet has always intrigued me. I appreciate the significant reduction in waste in these industries but I have always wondered about the role of designers in an industry where reuse and borrowing are so common. I am so glad these costumes get to stay in circulation for so long and enjoy that it has blossomed into a culture of lineage. Legacy is in interesting concept and one that I think our school is extremely invested in. It is a concept I was not really able to grasp until coming to CMU. Seeing all of these incredibly famous names on our walls is exciting enough, I can’t imagine wearing the same garment as someone as iconic as these ballerinas. Like one of the ballerinas in the article said, you feel like you are connected to something larger.
Like the comment above stated, it’s very interesting but also kind of inspiring how there is such an emphasis in reuse and legacy of costumes in the ballet world. This does imply that the same design is used for every production of the show, which allows the existence of iconic designs and a sense of tradition and connection between shows. Again although, where is there room for designers then in the Ballet industry? How many new ballets are written each season for there to be a demand for designers? Do they not want fresh looks and design takes on the stories, which can bring new life into a show which has been on stage for decades? I see both sides of the opinion, and why each could be beneficial and creative. I am also curious to who decided whether a production keeps the original costume designs, or decide to revamp the creative vision.
I think it's amazing to think of how much individual history different ballet costumes may have. Just thinking about what it would be like for a young dancer to wear the same exact costume as one of their idles is amazing and inspiring. Seeing yourself in the same costume as someone you look up to, I feel, could truly inspire you to keep reaching for your goals. For me personally, looking at a ballet costume that was meant to be for me and seeing the scattered labels of different names of the people who had worn it before me would only strike up my passion for dance even more. Being able to look at all that the costume has been through and all of the different performances it has seen shows how large the network of passionate dancers there are in the world.
This is such a beautiful article. I love the amount of history that each of these costumes hold, and it is a aspect of the performance that is so specific to ballet. Most theaters obviously redesign costumes for each production of a specific show, but ballet is an artform rooted in tradition and strict standards that have existed for hundreds of years. Often times when you see a traditional ballet you can see dances that were choreographed more than a hundred years ago. It is the art form of living history. Recreation and preservation of traditional dance, and ideals of grace and elegance. I love that the costumes and their labels reflect this pillar of this art form. Part of me does recognize this recycling of costumes as a bit gross, and I would be curious as to how they go about cleaning these very old costumes. It is also interesting to wonder, who designed these costumes that have been used for so long, and why are they so incredible that they haven't changed, even as audiences change.
The fact that these costumes, which are danced in thousands of times, can last decades baffles me, but I assume it is not dissimilar from how we tour scenery. When Music Theatre Wichita rented the touring set of In the Heights this summer, those of us in the prop shop spent a lot of time digging through the years old paper props reading the things actors wrote to one another in the past. There was a rolodex full of the phone numbers and locations of all the props coordinators who had received the package throughout the years (some were in Pittsburgh!). It is very cool to see dancers doing this with their age-old costumes too. I can very much see how wearing another dancer’s costume could pass down a sort of energy. I wonder how the labels manage to last so long, and how the costumes are cleaned between dancers.
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