Fall/ Christmas of 2013 was a dream come true!
After several years of a very successful version of the Nutcracker preformed by Ballet de l'Ouest here I was at he right place at the right time. Under new direction the companies Director, Claude Caron was to create a new choreography for the company. As a highly imaginative artist, Claude's vision was to bring the production up to date with the addition of multimedia and magic throughout the story. Along this vision came the opportunity to reimagine several of the costumes.
Many moms for the sewing team collaborated and a core of us decided to make a little business out of it. Born was Tutus4U. I was granted two assignments:
- To upgrade the traditional little child mice to a more animated RAT.
- To develop a junior demi-pointe Mint into a character that is transformed from a plain white candy to a Starlight Mint on pointe.
Conditions to be met? Oh boy!
- Cut down on alterations
- Have extras to fit a variety of body sizes
- Travel well
- Wash well
- Allow for flexible and creative movement
- Be comfortable
- Enable the dancer to get lost in character in order to mesmerize the audience in the story.
The Starlight Mint
First things first the group decided to start designing and manufacturing the main body for group costumes out of a 4-way stretch. This was we could meet all the above criteria. Many templates were fumbled over until the final cut out in red was applied to a white body suit highlighting a sweetheart neck line that met up with a silver sparkle net.
now the animation....
First we looked at having removable ribbon the dancer could spin out of. Too fussy.
The solution? A white heavy cotton apron lined with silver lining to ensure not red bread through. This worked well because the fabric was heavy enough to hold its form without help. the construction included a velcro fastening in the back. The Confectioner (a newly added character) danced around the Mint with pulling on the velcro to release the apron, the Mint dancer twirled as the apron was collected in a large mixing bowl. When I saw this number from the back of the theatre, my heart leapt out of my chest as the movement was just magic.
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| my eldest side stage |
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| photo credit: Michael Slobodian |
The RAT!
In the previous production of the little mice, this character was played by very young dancers. The costume likened an over sized faux fur sweat shirt with a hood. Oh they were as cute as a button.
The new version of the story has updated the mice to Rats and boy did they have personality! As an opener the Rats deliver a message to the audience to turn off their cell phones. A small staged production is made by an audience member coming on stage with his phone to take a selfie. The Rats trick him into the middle of their gang and teach him a lesson in putting the phone away.
Again this costume was to be updated to fit a larger, over dancer and one of the previous concerns we heard was the costume was hot and smelly.
Designed and manufactured was a one piece hooded body suit. Our group experimented with many versions of this as the design was to be used in the Snow as well. After some failed attempts construction was solidified and production went into play. Over 50 of these suits were made. It was quite a task.
The stretch material was an ideal addition as it developed the appearance of a beat up RAT. I used the stretch for the tail and it looked pretty gnarled.
The old faux fur was re-purposed into pants and a demi-top. This provided the look of a gnarled tummy and legs. Over all this costume brought a lot of character and life to the scenes they appeared in.
Only lesson...... the ears were originally shaped using a natural fibre, stiff mesh. Thank you to the moms on tour who later sewed in wires to define the ears after the mesh mushed in the wash.
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| photo credit: Michael Slobodian |
