Butterfly down…

When you create a production, it is not only the choreography that “speaks” to the audience, but also the costumes and the emotion created by the music, lighting and atmosphere. All of these aspects need to compliment each other in order to portray your message. So in my opinion, the COSTUMES are one of the key factors that make or break a production and it is so important that the costumes are made in order to portray the choreography in the best possible way.

For the butterfly character we knew that we wanted to create long soft wings, which allowed for a lot of movement when the dancer moved her arms and the choreography for this part also supported a lot of movement, so it complemented the use of the wings beautifully.

Unfortunately, two weeks before the show, the ballerina that was originally cast for this part sustained an injury so bad that she could no longer take part in the show. We really started to panic, because all of the costumes were done and we’ve been rehearsing for the past 3 months, where are we going to find someone that can take this part? Luckily with a bit of shuffling, the choreographers managed to find a cast member that could fill this part…and one that fit into the costume, so that was a relief. The only alteration we needed to make was to shorten the sleeves a bit.

For this costume, we’ve used a vibrant purple lycra with a printed chiffon to highlight the contrast between the body and the wings of the butterfly. The lighter colour of the chiffon fabric also facilitated with the illusion of the transparency of a butterfly’s wings. For the body of the butterfly, we’ve made a simple long sleeve leotard with a short A-line skirt, to showcase the long legs of the ballerina. The wings was sewn into the sleeves at the underarm seam to give the effect of a butterfly flapping it’s wings when the dancer moved her arms. Finally, we’ve embellished the costume with rhine stones and sequence to make it “show” ready. I believe that when you get to the stage you can never have too much bling, because the person in the furthest back row of the theatre also needs to see what’s going on, on the stage.

I hope you enjoyed the backstory of this costume.

Have you ever wonder how a tutu is made? Check out my blog post where I explain the process step by step.

Thanks for reading!

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