GALLIM
Creative Director 2005-2012
I had the privilege of designing the costumes for Gallim since the company was formed in 2007 through 2018. Co-founder and celebrated choreographer Andrea Miller worked closely with me on each project to interpret her choreography and vision. Together we created costumes with unbounded freedom of creativity and emotion. The work I did for Gallim represents my creativity unleashed. The galleries below walk through the work done for each show.
BLUSH
Inspired by the actual physical act of blood rushing to your face when caused by a beautiful emotion such as blushing. The costumes for Blush have a slight Japanese nod to them by the use of matte jersey, patent leather, and wide elastic. The white make-up concept I created was meant to signify the blood eroding from the face and body as the act of blushing comes to an end.
STONE SKIPPING
Performed at the Temple of Dender at the MET, this work was Andrea’s first as the resident artist of the MET that year. The piece was inspired by environmental degradation as a result of human interference. We wanted the costumes to look like organic shapes instead of clothes or recognizable costumes. I used heavy ivory linen to create many of the shapes, and silver/nude stretch sequins to resemble fish scales. Much of my inspiration came from the amazing clothes worn by the Masai tribe in Africa. I’ve always found such beauty in how the Masai create beautiful draping's and shapes from fabric that’s not sewn together.
CARBON
Held at the MET BREUER, Carbon was the idea of three separate pieces performed at the same time in three connecting studios allowing the viewer to decide how long they wanted to view each piece as they walked from room to room. Andrea and I wanted the dancers to feel and look naked yet showing layers of themselves. I therefore used various skin toned sheer garments to layer over each other which created interesting proportions. Although the work being performed in each room were different from each other, we wanted the costumes collectively in all the rooms to feel as one.
WONDERLAND
This work was inspired by pack mentality as an inherent and potentially dangerous element of human instinct. The piece was inspired by Chinese-born artist Cai Guo-Qiang’s installation called HEAD ON which depicts 99 wolves charging into a glass wall. We wanted to capture the raw and wild feeling of a pack of wolves, yet in a modern way. I used cement grey power mesh and matte stretch leather to capture the emotion.
STATE
Andrea worked with renowned choreographer Kyle Abraham on this piece. Inspired the set colors and the three beautiful dancers, I worked with an all-olive color palette using taffeta to create the shapes of the tops and jersey and elastic for the bottom shorts. I accented their knees and fingers with metallic gold body paint to create the illusion of knee pads and gloves to give an air of sport.
EVENINGS
Commissioned by The Pennsylvania Ballet Company, EVENINGS was a piece that combined the forward thinking of Andreas modern visions with classical ballet. I kept the male dancers sleek and simple with all black stretch cotton poplin shirts, and deep pleated cropped slim pants. The female dancers all wore long black voluminous matte jersey dresses with sheer jersey insets.
