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CANDICE THOMPSON |
There is an insightful article in the NY Times Arts section about Miro Magloire and the New Chamber Ballet. They are performing this weekend at City Center Studios Friday and Saturday night at 8pm. The show will also feature works by Constantine Baecher, one of which I got a good NY Times review for designing 
(photo below), and will also be the farewell performance for longtime NCB dancer, Christsin Hanna (center in photo below).
As many of you know, I have designed and made costumes for all of Miro’s new ballets for the last two years. It is always a fun project for me since I have to challenge myself to work to fit the particular confines of what they do, mainly LOLAstretch designs, and slowly I have made the push towards full dresses and alternately more spare and eccentric leotards with or without any chiffon attached.
{Elizabeth Brown in one of my first designs for NCB}
My designs for them must always take into account the following elements:
1. Space–they perform at City Center Studios, so there is not a stage and there are no stage lights. I want the costumes to be elegant and fabulous, but they must not overwhelm the audience, who sit quite close, or the piece. Nothing can be too “costumey” because there is no benefit of perspective. At the same time, I have wanted to expand from the sort of studiowear costumes that can be the obvious choice in such settings into what I consider actual costumes. In addition, there are also various body issues to take into account since the audience can “see” everything from where they are sitting. (This of course, has nothing to do with the dancers’ beautiful bodies, it is just a self-conscious fact of life in the dance business)
{Lauren O’Toole and Denise Small in a later concoction}
2. Budget–they are a small company and they pay me! While this is all fine and lovely this does not mean that my expenses can exceed a certain conservative amount per person, so there is always a certain level of creativity in figuring out how to achieve the look you want for the right price, not just fabric-wise but production-wise. The beauty of NCB is that they keep costs low so that they are able to present new works often. The article elaborates on this theme.
{Lauren and Damien in one of my first departures. This fabric did not really stretch which was sort of new for me!}
3. Timeline–no matter what Miro and I try to do to keep things from coming together at the eleventh hour, our production schedule seems to always get compressed. Part of this has to do with the fact I am costuming new work. So sometimes, if a ballet is coming along more slowly or being changed midway, this can affect my ability to get a headstart on designing. No point in designing something that does not go with the work. Another factor, is the schedule. While Miro has to some degree really perfected the dark art of scheduling, he still must contend with dancers and a designer that have a lot of schedule considerations, and so I don’t often get rehearsals or fittings with everyone at the same time until dress rehearsal.
{Denise, Lauren and Elizabeth in various length skirts.}
Oddly enough, I think working with these set elements has really enabled me to push myself and my creativity every time I work on something new for them. It has been such a pleasure to be able to grow as a designer with group that continues to grow as choreographers and performing artists. I really hope you can make the show–I will be there Saturday night!
CLICK HERE to read the NY Times preview article. CLICK HERE to see one of my leotard’s in a video clip that goes with the article.
