Thursday, November 12, 2020
How to Make Even Your Wildest Costumes Work For You
Dance Magazine: Dancer Brittany Parks has worn a lot of costumes in her career: She's performed in wedding dresses and giant dinosaur heads on "Glee," and donned period looks for shows like "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" and Broadway's Shuffle Along. But embodying a dancing poop emoji for the Disney Channel show "Just Roll with It"—and performing on a stage that was covered in slime—was probably the craziest.
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As someone interested in costume design, this is something I hadn't even though about, but makes so much sense. Of course, there are certain costume elements that would very obviously hinder movement, but there must be some fabrics or patterns that just so unluckily restrict the movements instructed by the choreographer. In terms of how to make outlandish costumes work for you, I do think it's all a matter of confidence. I am very interested in alternative, avant-garde, and campy costuming, so there's a lot that can be considered wild in those categories. But, if you really just commit and convince yourself you're the most fashionable person in the room, you could wear the most outrageous outfits you want. I think a great costumer should make a performer feel good, whether personally or just through the garment. I do seriously peel bad for the dancer that had to wear the poop emoji. That isn't costume design, that's just an insult to children's television.
I think this article is super interesting. It also really speaks to the importance of dress rehearsals. When costume pieces are restrictive, long and flowy, heavy, or otherwise, they can be serious safety concerns for performers who have to dance in them, ESPECIALLY if they do not get enough rehearsal time. I have always kind of had that thought of “how do they do all of that in that outfit??” sitting in the back of my mind. I think in the ballet and theatre worlds in particular, they try to solve this with rehearsal costumes that can be used in the room. Ultimately, the functioning of it can make or break the performance when it comes down to it, so it is better to have that practice than not to. It is really neat to see some of the ways that performers have adapted their own actions to fit their costumes better too. It definitely seems like there is an open conversation about how to deal with funkier costumes, and that makes me glad.
To me, when costumes are extremely complicated or elaborate, it should be a top priority to make sure that dancers are given as much time as possible to rehearse in them and become comfortable with them. Obviously extended time is not always a possibility, and I suppose that is when you want to make sure you have really quick thinking dancers. Any dancer who can make it look like an elaborate costume is just another part of them is accomplishing an amazing feat, and it is even more impressive when that is done on a tight timeline. I think it was really interesting when the actor was describing the manatee head costume, and all of the details he had to pay attention to. This intricacy is only possible with extended rehearsal time with the costume, and clearly the amount of time this actor had in the head was to his benefit.
The alternate title of this article should be: “Costume Designers Make Dancers Life Hell”. That’s so frustrating that sometimes they can’t even rehearse in the costume and so they have to change choreography. I also felt bad for the guy who had to look down the entire time he danced so that his mask was at the right angle. I am glad that they mention that the restrictiveness of some costume designs make the dancer think more about their character and make up for it in different ways. The same man who wore a mask said that it made him pay more attention to how he expressed emotions with his body and I thought the way he described it was very beautiful. I’m very impressed with dancers who have learned not to complain about costumes and to just roll with the punches unless there is a safety hazard. For the designers though, there needs to be a balance of functionality and good design because come on! Those poor dancers!
It’s interesting, thinking about the last paragraph, that is a way costumes are their own class of performance object. It makes me think about Julie Taymor’s puppet skins and how costumes are sort of like a puppet skin that just adds a layer to the character that you are, rather than adding a layer to make a character that you are not. I think another important thing this article mentions is the importance of giving performers time to become familiar with their setting. Jim Shumway talks about this a lot in Performing Flying that the performers needs to be 100% in order for the rig to truly be 100% and that's at the forefront of your attention because the safety in flying is such high stakes, but I think that the technical side of all forms of entertainment needs to be more aware of performer comfort. I think a lot of that also hinges on how much the entertainment industry relies on speed. I genuinely think everything we do in entertainment needs a massive overhaul to reevaluate why we value time over safety. I think our whole industry is a little hypocritical about how we value the art and the community, but have a process so deeply rooted in white supremacy and capitalism.
When adding the element of dance to a piece everything must be taken into account in the construction. A successful collaboration between the designer and choreographer/ director and the magic of theatre will make anything possible on stage. In the simplest of terms it may be using stretch fabric and adding gussets to a 1940’s mens suit to make it dance more gracefully on stage while still remaining true to the intention. But more often in the more elaborate dance costume designs there will be careful planning. You dont wait until the first dress rehearsal to tell the costume designer they need to do a split in this cocktail dress. In the conception, the costume should be there to serve the dancer and the play. In the first fitting usually you will ask the actor to do the most strenuous thing and see where the costume has stress points. I have worked on a show where the dancer approached the costume designer and said they had to hold back on the dancing because they didnt want to rip the costume. The response was “rip it”, we needed to see him do his thing full out and see where it would rip. He ended up not ripping anything and the whole debacle came from him not realizing the ability of the costume.
I love that Parks called the poop emoji "glamourous poop" because that is one way to put it and a great way to start the article. Overall, I loved this article, because movement is so important with costumes. As someone who makes their own cosplays/costumes, the amount of times I've had to adjust how I move or carry items because that is what the outfit forces me to do is countless (many of my cosplays have had sleeves several times my arm size and trying to do anything with my hands was nearly impossible at times because I couldn't get them out of all the fabric). This article really made me think about how dancers who have costumes that require adjusted movement or more rehearsal should be allotted more time with that, and in the case of four dancers and only two costumes, there should have been two more, because when it comes down to it, it's the dancer that might get blamed for a mess up when it's not their fault there wasn't enough designated rehearsal time. In the case of the costumes, I think that even if you can't have the exact costume in rehearsal, you can have something similar mocked up so the dancers can get used to the restrictions the piece might provide, which will help in the long run when time is short and you don't have to time to rehearse a piece again.
This article was fun to comment on, because I feel like “Oh! These are the moments we have been trained for!” I have taken several classes at CMU that prepare use for these moments and these fittings when we bring an elaborate costume to the performer and start troubleshooting in the fittings. In dancewear, we learned about movement and the importance of working with the choreographer from the very beginning. First, we consider what the designer wants, then we begin talks about what the dance needs to do. A mockup of some kind is created, and the initial fitting lets us know what does and doesn’t work, and then the problem solving begins. In mask making, we are taught how to work with breathability and visibility, and what the performer needs us to address. But often, it is not until dress rehearsals when the real issues can come to light, suddenly, they are no longer in a bright fitting room, but a dark stage. Can they see? Can they move safely and comfortably? This is a challenge of theatre that is really fun to work around and is the most rewarding in the end.
I can’t even imagine rehearsing a dance over and over again just to have to learn how to move your body in a challenging costume the day of. The dancers must mentally and physically prepare for the change, but that still seems extremely stressful. I guess they just have to do what Parks suggests and just embrace it. Having that flexibility to adjust where you look or how you balance, especially when those things are so crucial to most dance moves, is a great skill that comes with practice. Like many other people have mentioned, dress rehearsals are so important to not only nail the choreography but also to make sure everything is safe. The work between dancers and costumes is definitely a collaboration. I’m sure the costume department does everything they can to make that transition as smooth as possible. Although how smooth can they make it when you have to dance in a giant costume?
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