every rose

Ballet Memphis will remount Julia Adam's The Little Prince this fall. One of my favorite costume tricks is to put a Swarovski rhinestone or crystal at the tip of something that is to look sharp. This made her thorns look dangerous and more alluring...

Diablo Ballet dancers in costumes constructed by Cynthia Sarmiento.




Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s illustration.

 Saint-Exupéry’s roses are like the wild beach roses that dot the dunes of our local beaches on the North shore of Long Island.




Things left unsaid

 

A beautiful ballet by Amy Seiwert for Colorado Ballet. I love the way the dancers sway in unison, reminds me of leaves on a tree. I like when dancers look naked and clothed at the same time and  seek ways to achieve this, sometimes with sheer flesh colored stretch tulle, or with very sheer fabric in traditionally constructed clothing.

James Kudelka's ballet Hush for OBT.



The clothes in this ballet appear and disappear depending on their density and how the light changes.

fingers of your thoughts

Rendering for Julia Adam's fingers of your thoughts for Ballet Memphis, 2010.

Design above, and photo below, for Julia Adam's fingers of your thoughts for Ballet Memphis. The ballet was about hands, so we traced each dancer's hands and incorporated them into the style lines of the leotards. The tutus are based on a 16th century farthingale pattern, same as what Queen Elizabeth would have used under her gowns. The concept was literal and it worked well for the intimate studio where the ballet premiered. I added capri tights to the original design because there is floor sliding in the choreography.



mercy

The photo above is of Clifford Williams and Gary W. Jeter of Complexions Contemporary Ballet in Dwight Rhoden's Mercy, which premiered in 2009 in New York City.The white mesh was dip dyed to blend into the dancer's individual skin tones, quite a task with seventeen different dancers of varying ethnicities. I match their skin tones to paint swatches, and then use different strengths and combinations of Rit dye to get a close match, usually a combination of Cocoa Brown, Peach, and Tan.

Natiya Kezevadze in Rhoden's Mercy.

Some excerpts of the ballet are included in this montage.

white noise

The visual design and choreography for Amy Seiwert's ballet White Noise was recently nominated for an Isadora Duncan Award. German artist Frieder Weiss created a software technology that records and responds to dance in real time.

This is my second "Izzy" nomination for visual design, last year I received a nomination for Julia Adam's The Little Prince. The Baobab trees were particularly fun, giant green afro wigs created the tree tops. The book was written and illustrated on Long Island in my home town by French WWII aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s  baobab illustration.

dressing dancers



Photo by Terry Shapiro of Colorado Ballet principal dancer Maria Mosina.



This dress for a Matthew Neenan ballet is inspired by Georgia O'Keefe's flower paintings. I used ombre stretch mesh that moved from black to yellow, reversing the direction of each pattern piece randomly to have the effect of a shattered gradient of color.