Ballet Philippines, both the company and the Dance School has been around for nearly half a century. That is no mean feat, to be in existence for that long! Anyone involved in dance knows that blood, sweat and tears have been poured into an institution that gets to outlast the others. I've been fortunate to design for the school's dance recitals and for some of the company productions for at least a third of that time.
This year's recital proves to be different in that I get to design the sets as well. However, most of the costumes have been designed way ahead of recital date to afford the seamstresses enough time for costume execution. No matter how you think a design is set, there has to be room for changes along the ay while the costumes are being made.
Certain factors like fabric, accessories and sundries availability, design flaws (if any), and time constraints can change the way a costume looks once they are sewn. In my case, I often request that costume samples are made so that I can check how a certain design is transposed from drawing/ sketch to actual. I have to get them approved by the school director prior to mass production for the little girls to be able to dance in them... and their moms to nod approvingly. Yes, there are quite a number of stage mothers out there ( but let's not even go there.)
This year's theme is flowers. All the participants will be dancing as a particular blossom. Nice! and then the second part of the recital is anchored on a contemporary version of Alice in Wonderland. So, a part of the sets for the first part can and will be retained for the second portion of the recital. that would make life easier for me as set and costume designer... sort of. The materials for the sets have been procured and at this point. the construction should be underway. The costume samples have been completed with the exception of the long tutus.
The artificial flowers for the headdresses have been bought. But registration for the Summer Dance Workshop 2015 is still ongoing. It is standard practice that we add a couple more costumes for the late registrants and we expect some students to have more than one costume or be transferred to a higher level class just in case. No matter how perfectly planned things are there will always be a snag somewhere.
So for now, while there are still four weeks to go until curtain date, let me share some of the designs and the sewn samples. Whilst I enjoy the lull before all the bedlam happens on dress/ tech rehearsals.
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