These are definitely exciting times for fans of fashion and dance: we have seen in previous posts collaborations between fashion houses and choreographers and unique exhibitions of works created by iconic set and costume designers who collaborated with famous corps de ballet, but this week there was also another relevant fashion and dance story.
Every year couture steps onto the stage of the New York City Ballet for the Fall Fashion Gala, an event conceived by NYCB Board Vice Chair Sarah Jessica Parker and first launched in 2012. Since then, it has seen all sorts of designers collaborating with the company - from Olivier Theyskens and Valentino to Iris van Herpen, Dries Van Noten, Jason Wu, Virgil Abloh of Off-White, Rosie Assoulin, Thom Browne, Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen and Tsumori Chisato (just to mention a few...).
The designers involved bring their unique vision to the company, but they also end up learning a lot from the company's in-house costume ateliers, where seamstresses, pattern-cutters and textile experts are co-ordinated by costume director Marc Happel.
While the main hope behind this project is attracting new audiences to ballet, the Fashion Gala is also a great way to be more experimental and prompt fashion designers and young choreographers to create new work.
This year choreographer Matthew Neenan was matched with Gareth Pugh; Gianna Reisen was paired with Alberta Ferretti and Kyle Abraham worked with Giles Deacon.
Both Neenan and Abraham produced their first work for the company, "The Exchange" and "The Runaway", while Reisen, who at 19 is the youngest of the lot, her second ballet to NYCB's repertory, "Judah".
Showcased on Thursday evening the performances (more shows are scheduled for next week on 4th and 6th October) couldn't have been more different: there were definitely no pink tutus in Matthew Neenan's "The Exchange".
Pugh, who has so far worked as a costume designer for modern choreographies by Wayne McGregor, created in this case almost graphically brutalist designs.
Pugh went for wide-legged trousers and harness-style tops for the male dancers, severely architectural outfits that called to mind Alexander McQueen's costumes for Robert Lepage's "Eonnagata"; female dancers wore instead long hooded blood red flowing monastic robes (maybe not the most perfect solution for the cleanest fashion steps...) that opened up in strips as the performers twirled. Dramatic make up was instrumental with heavy blackened eyes for men and red masks for women.
Though the costumes weren't as body morphing as the ones for McGregor's "Carbon Life", they still pointed at darkly Gothic moods as the men's designs evoked elements of an executioner's uniform and went well with the almost geomerical movement devised by Neenan.
Ferretti's designs restored the delicate balance that classically trained audiences usually favour: though originally the designer wanted the costumes to be made in organza (a fabric that suits a runway, but not a stage), the NYCB costume atelier highlighted how it wouldn't have been good when dancers performed.
The choice therefore fell on chiffon stripes pieced together forming red and green ombre dresses; the same technique was employed for the bodysuits with appliqued silhouettes of dancers. The effect was romantic and feminine and the flowy dresses went well with the choreography, even though it was the third part of the gala that proved to be the most convincing.
Deacon created indeed a narrative based on a modern reinterpretation of Renaissance elements such as breechers, codpieces and ruffs in a black and white abstract graphic print. Some of the dancers looked like court jesters with burnt pheasant feather hairpieces giving them an animalesque touch.
The music was a mix of Nico Muhly, Jay-Z, James Blake and Kanye West and, while the choice was controversial, Kyle Abraham, founder of the A.I.M. contemporary dance company, came up with fierce and energetic steps. At times they were a combination of classical ballet, modernism, break dance and hip hop, like the triumphant solos with Taylor Stanley.
Who knows if George Balanchine would have liked the idea of matching choreographers and fashion designers, but the gala has proved financially successful for the company and has raised more than $15 million for the New York City Ballet since the project started in 2012.
The company needed an uplifting event to kick off the new season this year: following sexual misconduct allegations by a former student, the New York City Ballet terminated two male principal dancers and accepted the resignation of another. Hopefully, the dark clouds have now parted and the company can refocus on producing innovative pieces and fashion collaborations.
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