ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the agency and experience of dress and costume in the creative and collaborative process of making contemporary dance work and explores the complexity of its relationship to the body. Interdisciplinary dance artist Marie-Gabrielle Rotie works closely in collaboration with designers, developing costume and choreography through devised processes. Judith Mackrell identifies that dance and fashion are connected, but choreographers who do not want to “give out confusing signals of character, style, period, particularly in plotless work, will generally dress their dance in as uniform a style as possible. The visual and/or physical interference of costume in the dance is the central preoccupation for both designers and choreographers. This preoccupation is clearly illustrated in Lucy Guerin’s comments in which she explained how her relationship with costume has become more complex because audiences already “find dance difficult to interpret and are constantly looking for clues.”.
