This Body Tells a Story: Two Different Approaches to Designing Costumes for Characters with ‘Othered’ Bodies

ABSTRACT

My presentation will reflect on two projects, for which I designed costumes: a musical Elefantasia (2020, directed by D. Drabek) and a dance performance Panopticum (2019, choreographed and directed by L. Wagnerová; stage design J. Kopecký). As an interesting challenge for me as a costume designer, both these productions, although conceived independently, referred to the historical phenomenon of the so-called ‘freak shows’ with their dehumanization practices, and contained characters with severe physical disabilities. While both these projects involved an intense collaboration between me (the costume designer), the set designer, and the director, the working process for each of them was different. In Elefantasia, the costumes were designed in the more conventional way (from research to renderings to physical realization), in Panoptikum, the costumes were conceived as the stage designer’s and my own response to the choreographer’s and dancers’ improvised movements; these ‘ad hoc’ concepts were then transformed into costumes that aligned with the stage design.

Comparing these two creative processes, I will consider the agency of costume while answering the following questions: How does different creative attitudes and ways of implementation influence the final shape and function of a costume? In which type of a performance project are costumes more significant for communication between the stage and the audience? In what type of performance piece is the performer, in relation to his/her costume, more active, interpreting the specific character and its inner world, and when are they more passive? And finally, which approach to designing a costume works better for creating complex characters whose ‘othered’ bodies carry complex (hi)stories?

BIOGRAPHY

Simona Rybáková, PhD, is a Czech costume designer and independent researcher. Born in Prague, she graduated from the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague, and also studied at the University of Applied Arts in Helsinki, Finland, and at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, USA. She was the Czech representative in the OISTAT Executive Committee (1997-2007), and is currently head of Performance Design Commission / Costume. She is also a member of the European Film Academy and Czech Film and Television Academy, as well as a member of the Critical Costume Steering group, active in international costume projects. She won the PQ99 Golden Triga as a curator (with Šimon Caban) of the Czech national exhibition, the Swarovski Award, and the awards for costume design in World Stage Design Cardiff 2013, Taipei 2017 and Istan Award of Excellence in Beijing 2018. In 2011, she was the curator of the Extreme Costumes exhibition at PQ11. Her dissertation focused on the alternative and new ways in contemporary costume designing. Thanks to her multifaceted education and her experience with her dance and theatre group Ballet Unit Cramp, she has had the opportunity to work in many different styles of costume and fashion design, and combine a wide range of influences. Today, she creates costumes for theatre, television, film, dance, concerts, site-specific projects, and special events. She works, lectures, and exhibits her work at home and internationally.