Archive for costumes
September 4, 2008 at 4:31 pm · Filed under dance, costumes, candice thompson, CANDICE, costume design, new chamber ballet, miro magliore
Tomorrow night New Chamber Ballet opens its season at City Center with 3 new ballets by Miro Magloire, Lauren Toole and Constantine Baecher. The last few weeks I have been designing and constructing 10 new costumes, with mulitple pieces per costume, in the midst of end-of-summer vacations and Labor Day weekend. It goes without saying, it has been nuts! But I am really excited about them, mainly because they represent a pretty big departure from the norm for me.
Sketch of female costume for Baecher’s Arachnophilia. It is a nude unitard with a tunic dress and cowl neck veil of varying nets and meshes that I have cut into.
{The ladies of New Chamber Ballet: Elizabeth, Emily, Maddie and Emery. First fitting over practice clothes, without unitards. Took me a few moments to realize Emily and Emery needed to switch and a bit longer decide what needed to be added or taken away once they started moving in them. Basically, I am constantly adding to and editing it in my head.)
Tonight is dress rehearsal and I still have to hook and eye and put straps on all of the dresses for Cascade (Toole’s ballet). It is at times such as this, I like to remember that there are stories of Karinska getting into the cab at 8p on opening night to head for the theatre with the costumes and dancers waiting in the wings in just their pink tights! Yes, I will take a deep breath in and remember I am actually very, very close to the end result………..the performance, when I can finally exhale!
Tomorrow night and Saturday at 8p. City Center Studios. 4th Floor.
Recent Posts by candice thompson
June 16, 2008 at 4:09 pm · Filed under dance, costumes, candice thompson, CANDICE, costume design, creative arts studio, LOLAstretch
To borrow a great phrase from my favorite and only tv show I have watched in the last few years, Project Runway. Tim Gunn would be proud if he only knew of the almost 70 costumes I designed and made over the last few weeks for eight different classes at the Creative Arts Studio for their annual showcase at Brooklyn Museum. Some were for my own ballet students, some were for other classes like Hip Hop.
It was insanely stressful but in the end the two shows this past Saturday and Sunday came off without a hitch and it was a successful end to the school year for the students and teachers, who all worked as hard and intensely as I did.
Here are some backstage photos I took on Sunday, letting you into the nerves and excitement that are present when kids are the stars of the event:
Two of my advanced students, Elizabeth and Olivia, getting ready to perform on pointe for the first time ever!
Another advanced student, Sean, getting her pointe shoes on. She has been injured and performed rather stoically and beautifully through the pain just as a professional would, which of course, had all of the teachers incredibly on edge.
My Ballet 2 students in their “Fall” costumes, showing me backstage that they were ready to perform. And perform they did, I saw some jetes I had never seen before in terms of height and felxibility!
A couple of Ballet 1 students, in butterfly leotards of mine with attached “wings”, went around giving tired teachers shoulder rubs. I got in that line quick!
More Ballet 1 butterflies waiting to go onstage, bubbling over with nervous energy on top of their usual high energy.
Miranda, of Ballet 2, waiting in line for the final bow at the end of the show.
A few of the hip hop students in nutcracker short unitards I made. The theme for the entire show was The Four Seasons. It was the end of the show and as you can see, the girl on the left is losing one of her gold stripes. One of the biggest goals of mine was to create costumes that could be worn by the students in their classes after the show. The parents spend a lot of money and it seems a shame to get only one wear. So pieces like the gold stripes were tacked on at the last minute for easy removal, and all of the skirts were separate from the leotards, which were all based on my LOLAstretch designs.
My advanced ballet had the final piece of the show to Vivaldi’s Summer. Here is a photo I took, like a proud parent, from the audience. The were in champagne chiffon empire-waisted dresses.
Congratulations to all of the students at CAS! You were beautiful!
xo
Candice
Recent Posts by candice thompson
April 17, 2008 at 2:59 pm · Filed under dance, costumes, candice thompson, CANDICE, costume design
Just to follow up on my post last week from the costume fitting Emery and i had for Ballet Builders. Here is a view of the costumes from the stage, as captured by the NY Times. Again, it is always so hard to really see what is going on with the costumes in their photos, but it is fun to be in there again!
Congrats on the lovely review Emery!!
Recent Posts by candice thompson
February 7, 2008 at 12:40 am · Filed under SLOAN, dance, new york city ballet, costumes, susan stroman
My office at NYCB happens to be on the same floor as the men’s dressing room. My trek down the hallway that leads to the admin offices is usually full of mens costumes from whatever ballets are going at the time.
This week the company has been doing Susan Stroman’s silent-film-inspired work Double Feature. The second feature of the piece is called Making Whoopie, and consists of a bevy of brides (both male and female) running, leaping and trampling over each other, all across the stage. So this week, the men’s costume area has been filled with modified wedding gowns. This past Saturday I went with a friend to a bridal atelier where she tried on potential gowns, and the juxtaposition in my mind of those two scenes was pretty funny.
Recent Posts by kristin sloan
December 8, 2007 at 4:09 pm · Filed under backstage, dance, new york city ballet, costumes, makeup, Nutcracker, gwyneth muller, JUSTIN, justin peck, mother ginger
Ok here are some of the shots (by the talented Gwyneth Muller) that did not make it onto the initial ‘Mama G’ post. Some are too funny to leave out, while others are simply just too frightening to stop staring at . Enjoy
A NBA basketball player’s Tendu Efface
Disgruntled Mama G (make-up removal process)
Gwyneth [the flower] and Me [the, uh, er, drag queen?]
There you have it.
Laugh, Cry, Eat, Drink, Be Merry
Recent Posts by justin
November 5, 2007 at 3:41 am · Filed under dance, costumes, friends, SOPHIE, sophie flack, life, gwyneth muller, fun
Tiger and Ladybug-er on Halloween!
(thanks for the pic, Gwyn)
Recent Posts by sophie
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