Images Dance Concert '23 Costume Designs
February 2023, Louis B. Mayer Theater, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA
I got the opportunity to design costumes for one dance in Images 2023, which is the biggest dance concert of the year at Santa Clara University.
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Concept: The dance was inspired by monarch butterflies and exploring the varied pace of nature, from quick to extremely slow.
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Process: I had several meetings with the Choreographer, where we discussed his vision of "vertical energy" through monarch butterflies. Also, since the dance was inspired by monarch butterflies, he wanted the main colors to be orange and black with green and red as accent colors.
From there, I sketched out some colors and patterns that I could envision going with the dance, and then explored different ways to put those designs on costumes. Throughout a collaborative process with the choreographer and the costume shop manager, we discussed what each individual costume should have, in terms of specific designs, then figured out the process to make them.
We started with buying black unitards that fit the dancers, and then we cut out orange and green fabric stripes to be sewn over the unitards. From there, we painted some red and green dots to add some more organic shapes to the costumes, using fabric paint.
