Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Karl Lagerfeld-designed Chanel tutu for the English National Ballet, 2009
Alexander McQueen, Eonnagata, 2009
Photo by Erick Labbe
Costumes by Oskar Schlemmer (Bauhaus) for Ballet triadique, at Metropol theater in Berlin, 1926
Photo by Ernst Schneider/Apic/Getty Images
French comedian Cora Laparcerie as Myriem in Le Minaret in a Paul Poiret-designed costume, Paris, 1913
Photo by Apic/Getty Images
Simon Williams wearing BodyMap whilst appearing in Michael Clark's Come, Been and Gone, 2009
Photo by Jake Walters
From left to right: Lydia Sokolova, Anton Dolin, Bronislava Nijinska and Leon Woizikowsky in the Diaghilev Ballets Russes production of Le Train Bleu, London, 1924. Costumes by Coco Chanel
Photo by Sasha/Getty Images
Bless fashion during a dance performance at Paris Fashion Week Ready-to-Wear Spring/Summer 2010 collection, Paris, France, 2009
© YOAN VALAT/epa/Corbis
I Drink The Air Before Me, Adam Kimmel
Photo by Frank Thompson
Still Smoking by Maria Hassabi, 2006
Costumes by ThreeAsFour

Love Don't Love

Tuesday, March 30, 2010 Replay

Esprit de Corps

Anna Halprin: Breath Made Visible

Clothes Encounter

A Century in Fashion and Dance

Clothes Encounter

A Century in Fashion and Dance

Coco Chanel and Ballet Russes; Paul Poiret and Cora Laparcerie; Hussein Chalayan and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. Fashion and dance have been partnering up since the late 19th century, inextricably linked by their mutual focus on the body and self-expression. “Fashion is made to move in the world and dance is extreme motion,” states leading choreographer Stephen Petronio, who has done much to honor this relationship in the past decade, collaborating with Rachel Roy, (BLOOM, 2006), Adam Kimmel (I Drink the Air Before Me, 2009) and, this April, Jillian Lewis (Ghostown). In each case the designers have worked with Petronio to create pieces that do not over-embellish or weigh too heavily on the dancers but amplify the aesthetic dimension of the performance. “When the curtain goes up the first thing one sees is the garment, the idea cut in cloth… it is the first sign of what is to come,” he says. Last year the Ballet Russes celebrated its centenary, creating the perfect opportunity for haute fashion and dance collaborations to blossom: Chanel’s Karl Lagerfeld designed a tutu for the English National Ballet, while the late Alexander McQueen created breathtaking crinolines (inspired by 18th century Oriental dress) for Russell Maliphant’s Eonnagata.

Stephen Petronio Company will perform Ghostown at New York’s Joyce Theatre from April 27 – May 2. In September London’s V&A museum hosts a major retrospective entitled Diaghilev and the Golden Age of the Ballet Russes.