ABSTRACT
The Living Archive has given the author a chance to look at the design history of the company, both his own work and what other set, prop and costume designers have done. Through the Living Archive he has reflected on the technical developments that have happened through new materials on the market. The array of stretch fabrics now available makes it so much easier to dress acrobats who twist and bend every possible way. Costumes composed of clever gussets and complicated panels have been simplified or just work so much better, no longer encasing performers in restrictive layers. An acrobat who is doing a double somersault is in no position to make a dramaturgical decision about the meaning of that double somersault. As the company expands, the importance of an accessible history becomes greater because it is no longer stored in the memories of the people creating or performing the work.
