Drawing with the body and cloth

This work is part of the project Flight: Drawing Interpretations, a collaboration with researchers from London College of Fashion with The National Gallery in London. My work within this project extends design methods for contemporary dance through theoretical and empirical research into the relationship between design, drawing methodologies and cognitive theory to develop garments and choreography as simultaneous practice. The research intention is to achieve integration of meaning, movement and clothing design.

The methodology for performance approached the body as a physical drawing and design tool, with the researcher and dancer in continuous verbal and experiential dialogue as a means of generating performative clothing design and communication. The National Gallery painting A Detail from The Tempest by Peder Balke, inspired the clothing, performance and dance development through which the methodology was tested. Costume and choreography were developed simultaneously through improvisational sessions with designer and dancer and analysis of video footage and recorded testimony.

Tempest dress
The Tempest dress and performance embodies the feelings sounds and emotions of a tempest. The work is developed in response to a National Gallery painting A Detail from The Tempest by Peder Balke.

Grey Waves
The Grey Waves Dress and performance embodies the movement and physicality of waves, water and wind and explores their relationship to the body. It also draws on ideas of balance and the movement of birds on water and in flight. The work is developed in response to a National Gallery painting A Detail from The Tempest by Peder Balke.