Dressing Wearing: Movement directed by dress - dress directed by movement
Ulrik Martin Larsen, PhD Dissertation, 2016
Abstract
Contemporary dance and modern ballet often focus on conveying emotions through patterns of movement which may be abstract, obvious, or anywhere in between, supported by music, sound, or spoken words that set the mood. Scenography is typically sparse or confined to the available space, leaving the dancers as the main instrument of communication. This work explores dressing and wearing, with a focus on how garments can inform and direct movement, choreography, and performance, and in turn how movement may inform and contribute to the development of dynamic garments. Through a series of live experiments, ranging from self-instigated performance/video work in collaboration with choreographers and dancers to performances of garment interaction associated with everyday life dressing, the performative, spatial, and interactive properties of garments are explored. The results present alternative models of collaborative interaction related to various aspects of kinaesthetics, choreography, scenography, and performance space, and offer wide-ranging creative potential. The work shows how designers and choreographers can collaborate on performance scenarios within the context of modern ballet and contemporary dance productions, thus creating conceptual garments that influence the design, choreography, and movement pattern based on a re-conception of what it means to dress and to wear. In relation to the act of dressing and undressing, alternative types of garment and ways of wearing and performing were found where garments act as co-choreographers in the development of performances. Moreover, by having wearing and dressing as a form of choreography these acts, act as the co-creator of garments both in our everday lives and on stage. As a consequence, the results also demonstrates how the agency of garments can function as a manuscript in modern dance, and how performance itself redefines the notion of wearing and the concept of garments.