Costume capers

The art of performance is something very special. In the Romantic era particularly classical ballet was deemed essentially ethereal, with the performers unobtainable by the audience. The fourth wall - in between the stage and the audience - which was created by the performance itself was a metaphorical barrier which divided the human and the artistic. Moving into the twentieth century, the 1960s in particular - this performance quality shifted and the fourth wall was 'demolished' by the performers as pedestrian movement took over any ounce of technical training they may have had in order to communicate a strong statement questioning 'what is dance?' Today audiences are lucky to be privy to a wide variety of performances: classical ballet, 'television influenced' lyrical jazz, contemporary, physical theatre - the list goes on and audiences can have a rich cultural mix of dance and performance. The fourth wall may be firmly in place, or the performers may invite the audience on stage, merging life and performance illusion. Either way, audiences have trust in their ticket that they will be performed to, possibly entertained and that they will come away thinking of what happened in the auditorium/performance space. Whatever the performance venture, aim or purpose, the audience expect high quality performative work. This being said, all too often the costumes of performances let audiences in on the illusions of the stage and performance space. With a paid performance there is a certain level of expectation from the audience, and costume is one, regardless of whether it is wholly pedestrianised or a full Vegas showgirl costume. It is arguable that seeing an incomplete costume detracts from the performance: seeing the safety pins which are holding the costume together, or someone's colourful socks which are definitely not necessary or part of the historical context completely devalues the performance and any hard work which has contributed to its production.