驫舞劇場2009《正在長高》dress Part 2 服裝的成張與衰退

Soil all over the dance floor

Dancers wearing mobile life-vest sliding on the floor

服裝設計dress rehearsal看排
Notebook Date: 12.03.09 看排紀錄
Project: costume design
Event: Growing Up 正在張高
Event Date: 12月4日���五���20:00 pm 12月5-6日���六-日���14:45 pm 12月6日���六���19:45 pm
Event Venue: 台北藝術大學展演藝術中心戲劇廳
Presented by: Horse Dance Theatre 驫舞劇場
Choreographer: 陳武康,張堅志,黃懷德,張子凌,蘇威嘉,楊育鳴
Dancers: 陳武康, 張堅志,黃懷德,張子凌,蘇威嘉,楊育鳴

"舞劇場成員以「命題作文」方式創作出《樓梯》、《速度》、《<wbr>骨》等作品���從嘗試中逐漸發展出集體創作的方法及觀念���編舞、<wbr>音樂、服裝設計及舞台設計都是集體創作的內容���<wbr>創作之初雖有明確主題及動機���藉由集體排練、辨論與相互觀摩���<wbr>舞作內容循序往主題核心靠攏���慢慢成形具體���<wbr>其過程需要長時間蘊釀���創作時間長達六個月之久。" excerpt from Horse Dance theatre

Let me share a little on how this creative process begin at Horse with a collective group of artist.

In each of the 3 dances(2007 速度 velocity, 2008 骨 bones, 2009 正在張高 Growing up I have designed this far, it always start with a theme ( in this case, "Growing Up" ), and it leads to a series of clear cut ideas and concepts regarding the development of the theme.

Horse's concept for Growing Up was to explore the life and death issue surrounding each one of us. There is beginning and ends to human exploration. It began on a bed and end elsewhere. What we have left off are memories, personal belongings, friendship and so forth. During this process, we explore the possibilities of human legacy or simply what we have left behind; or what we have grown into or became. The concepts also deal with our life-forming capabilities and the needs to grow up quickly at an alarming rate, which eventually lead to decaying and dying and finally death.

黃懷德 wearing 100% linen pants + 100% cotton top + patches

張堅志 wearing 100% cotton topstitching pants + 100% cotton top + paneling + patches

During the costume design process, I had written down the following keywords from what I thought at the time to be inspirational for this project.

Growing - organic, grounded, patches

Decaying - dirty, patches, stitching, earthy

The growing process 成張過程

The process was to finish the majority of the costume to be worn before or during the rehearsal so they go through daily grinding and abrasion of the fabrics. Dancer's hardwork and sweat therefore left life and momories in these costume, at times, the wear-and-tear lead to a series of patchwork and re-stitching.

The decaying process 衰退過程

By using majority linen, or linen blended fabrics, it helps to ground the colors and make it more organic, therefore prone to destruction and tear in fabric. The washing of the linen fabric creates interesting textures and creases, very much like "growing pain "

In retrospect, The Horse dance project is one of the most challenging because of it's continuity in searching of freedom in movement and defy the conventional story and role playing character in dance costume.

All photos courtesy of Chang-Chih Chen 陳長志