Costume in Action
Categories: Costume in Action Tags: Presentations
Research Symposium 3 : The Agency of Costume in Society
Wed 11 Sept 11.30 - 13.00 Studio 1
Papers presented here are from designers, theatre makers and academics whose idea of costume expands beyond the performance to embrace therapeutic purposes, educational approaches and ways to bind generations together in social dance.
1. Melissa Trimingham: Autism: Audience and Agency
Melissa Trimingham is a co-investigator in the AHRC funded project ‘Imagining Autism: Drama, Performance and Intermediality as Interventions for Autistic Spectrum Condition’. Here she describes how autistic children play within the specially built, sensory immersive environments using loose iterative narrative strands of drama: costume becomes a vital material form in direct contact with the body; a driver of action; a material anchor for thought and creativity; an instrument of agency and a conduit for change- for both practitioner and child.
2. Sofia Pantouvaki: Performance Design Generating Interaction
Results from the Greek National Opera Research Project “Interactive Opera at Primary Schools” Professor Sofia Pantouvaki presents the first collective results of the implementation of the Greek National Opera artistic research project “Interactive Opera at Primary Schools” (May 2012 – June 2013). The project included educational interactive activities through the scenography and costume design of the opera The Barber of Seville, which were integrated in the design of the actual performances on stage. This preliminary evaluation provided evidence of the wide potential for artistic expression as well as the social and educational benefits of children’s creative engagement with performance design.
3. Ramon Ivars: Together but not the same
Flamenco’s role in society transformed when it moved to the stage, becoming established as leisurely entertainment for the ‘elite’ across generations, thus alienating itself from its own roots. This illustrated presentation is about the substantial differences between what almost the whole world understands as Flamenco (Spanish dance) and the real Flamenco and how costume reflects this difference. The interesting exchange between gypsy traditions and the Andalusian/Arabian folklore generates a really specific and rich way to communicate ‘authenticity’ through the dancing, costumed body.
Chair: Donatella Barbieri
Price: £6
Image: Photograph by Victor Moreno
