Questioning Gender Conventions in Dance & Costumes
Full costume conception and realization and co-choreographer
Sustainable conception
2019
I wanted to explore costumes for dance and acrobatic performances. I had noticed that a lot of shows like circus or ballet display gendered costumes: men wearing pants and women wearing dresses. For me, dance is an abstract art form that celebrates the human body and I think that it is very sad to trap artists in conventional costumes. Thus, I decided to research how costumes can enhance the body without confining it in social conventions.
What kind of costume could emphasize or create new kinds of movement movements? What kind of costumes could modify the body to create new shapes? How is it possible to transform the human body and break gender conventions? Those are all questions I asked myself and tried to answer.
For this project, I collaborated with the dancer Emma-Lynn MacKay-Ronacher. She is a recent graduate from l’École supérieure de ballet du Québec, where she started her professional dance training at the age of fourteen. Emma-Lynn has travelled across North America, Europe and the Dominican Republic performing and training with different companies and choreographers including company Akram Khan Company, National Ballet of Dominican, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Gioconda Barbuto, Rubberband Danse, Hubbard street, and Arts Umbrella. Currently Emma-Lynn is based as a freelancer in Montreal and is continuing to explore the professional world of dance.
We tried to create a choreography in which the dancer and the costumes are intimately connected. A choreography that needs both to exist. The costumes inspire movement to the dancers in the same way that the dancer makes the costumes alive. We tried to create a performance and a costume that could be danced regardless of the gender and tried to create an evolution throughout the piece. The costumes are evolving and so are the movements as they follow what the costume dictates and inspires.
Photos: Terry Joo - @terry.joo.photograph
Dancers: Emma-Lynn MacKay-Ronacher & Juanse Hoyos
