Fall Dance Concert
Realized Design - University of Kansas
Fall 2018
Choreographers: Patrick Suzeau, James Moreno, and Jerel Hilding
​
For this production, I designed for multiple choreographers on three very different dance pieces. The first was a piece called "The Dying Swan". It was a contemporary ballet/pointe piece commenting on pollution. The choreographer wanted the dancers to look pristine from the back, but look covered in oil from the front. Originally he also wanted full gas masks, but we compromised on half masks with ventilation added. I hand-painted each leotard to get the desired oil spill look.
​
The second piece was "Tangazo" and it was based partially on Ann Rice's "Interview with a Vampire". Additionally, the dance steps were a combination of ballet and tango. I took color inspiration from the movie adaption of "Interview with a Vampire" and silhouette inspiration from traditional tango costumes. Two of the characters were "innocents" who began the piece dressed in white. The female later gets turned into a vampire, so I found a way for her to do an onstage quick change into a red dress. This was accomplished by having the white skirt be detachable and finding a red dress similar to the others to add on top of the white leotard.
The third piece was titled "The Pocho Project". This was a modern/hip hop piece, so the choreographer wanted the dancers to be wearing streetwear that they could dance in. I researched several regional street styles across the United States. Then I took the elements that the choreographer and I liked best and combined them into several distinct looks. Each dancer was then assigned a look to base their outfit on. The costumes ended up being the essence of the rendering, rather than being exactly the same.
