By stitch, shade, sketch, and swatch, the University of Iowa’s Costume Shop works around the clock to create costumes for the annual Dance Gala.
Dance Gala, which dates back to 1981, showcases a variety of student dancers and faculty choreographers.
This year’s performances take place on Oct. 17 and 18, featuring five different dances, all varying in cast, theme, and costume.
According to Jenn Pray, a visiting assistant professor for the UI’s Dance Department, costumes are the first image the audience takes in when the curtain goes up, making them essential to the performance.
With this in mind, the work of the designers who create the 40 costumes it takes to help run UI’s Dance Gala becomes high stakes.
The answer lies within the trio of Jenny Nutting Kelchen, Cindy Kubu, and Brendan Dudgeon, who together transform sketches into garments balancing functionality with intrigue.
Kelchen, along with Kubu, works through the process in Hancher’s Costume Shop.
Concept and collaboration
Every piece begins with a conversation, Pray, a choreographer for Dance Gala, said. This in depth one-on-one conversation between visionary artists gives Kelchen insight into the intention behind the piece and helps with brainstorming how to visually translate for both the audience and the dancers.
The costume designers also sit in on the different pieces, taking notes of the groupings, movement, and emotions the performance reveals, Kelchen said.
From there, the designers mock up mood boards, slideshows, and paper dolls, or illustrations of costumes and their fabrics, colors, and cuts to form a concept.
Design and construction
Once designs are outlined, the costume shop doubles as a construction site where Kelchen, Kubu, and Dudgeon get to work. The first step is finding fabrics and clothing items to fit the choreographer’s vision, Kelchen said.
To find such specific fabrics, Kubu said, they call every fabric supplier they know. Once done, the fabrics are secured, and construction begins.
The amount of time it takes to create a costume depends on the choreographer’s vision.
The Trisha Brown Dance Company piece, for example, took longer than some of the other pieces because it is a remake of a 1990s piece.
More fabric requires more sewing, which tacks on more time. Other costumes with simpler cuts and fabrics require less manual labor.
While creating the costumes, Kelchen emphasized the importance of functionality, allowing functionality and design to exist on the same plane.
Fittings and adjustments
With the base costumes complete, the focus shifts from the sewing tables to the dressing room.
Gala dancers trickle into the costume shop for their first fittings, which is exciting, Emily Pyburn, one of the dancers cast in Dance Gala, said. For her, this is the stage where everything starts to feel real.
“Putting the costume on and finally getting to dance in it is so transformative,” Pyburn said.
Curtain up
With the hardest work done for the designers, the dancers enter tech week — the week before opening night, where dancers run through the production on stage in costumes.
If anything needs fixing, Kelchen and Kubu are on the spot to help with any last-minute alterations or emergencies.
By the time opening night arrives, the work of the costume shop has quietly transformed into part of the show’s storytelling, allowing the audience to see months of creative conversation transformed on stage.
For Pray, that transformation is what makes costuming such a vital part of dance.
“The costumes are a huge part of that story,” Pray said. “They indicate a world being built within the piece that’s different from the world the audience knows.”