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.