CUTTING SHAPES Costuming for the RNZB
Artistic director and experienced ballet dancer Patricia Barker slips on her designer’s hat to create costumes for the RNZB’s latest production.
High above Wellington’s Courtenay Place, under harsh fluorescent lights, sewing machines whirr and metres of tulle are transformed into delicate tutus.
Welcome to the Costume Shop, the wardrobe department of the Royal New Zealand Ballet (RNZB), where a team of up to 20 dressmakers painstakingly craft the costumes worn by the national ballet company’s 37 dancers.
It’s where you have to go to find the RNZB’s artistic director, Patricia Barker. Usually the American import would be in her office down the hall, but today Patricia is choreographing a different kind of dance.
In addition to running the 66-year-old company, Patricia has designed the costumes for its upcoming production of Black Swan, White Swan and is ensuring that the “simple, clean-lined designs” are custom-fit for each dancer.
“We have up to five fittings for each costume as it’s essential the costumes can flow with each dancer,” she says.
Although it’s not unusual for artistic directors to wear more than one hat – choreographing, writing, set designing and more – it’s somewhat rarer for them to design costumes.
But Patricia has a unique advantage: while still a ballet dancer herself, she started a company designing and making dancewear for the American market.
“Costumes have been a passion of mine since I was a young dancer. Designing my own line gave me a unique understanding of the best kind of fabric for costumes, as well as details such as cut and texture.”
And then there are the other considerations: costumes need to be flexible, adjustable, lightweight and easy to clean. They need to come off with lightning speed and go back on the same way. And they must last for years.
“The costumes for Black Swan, White Swan will stay in our repertoire for some time, so they have to be good quality.”
Patricia initially designed these costumes in 2012 when she was artistic director of Michigan’s Grand Rapids Ballet company. Choreographer Mário Radačovský asked Patricia, who had previously designed the costumes for his production of Romeo & Juliet, to lend her talents to this contemporary retooling of Swan Lake, one of ballet’s most enduring classics.
“It’s a story of one man, Siegfried, and his struggle with love and betrayal. Caught between two women, the black swan and the white swan, Siegfried is torn between love, temptation and evil. It’s basically Swan Lake for the 21st century.”
It was important the costumes didn’t detract from the elaborate story, believes Patricia.
“The designs are very simple yet poignant. The female dancers, the swans, wear white leotards and shorts, as a sign of their purity and vulnerability. This reveals their beauty as the swans take flight in the second act, and again in the fourth act when they return.”
The male dancers wear business suits, with the only colour in the production being Siegfried’s coat, which he raises above his head to reveal a deep red lining, a graphic detail that symbolises the passion of blood.
Patricia scoured the globe for suitable fabric, eventually settling on European suppliers. Although 50 costumes are needed for this production, sometimes dancers can share costumes, depending on sizes.
Patricia, who moved to New Zealand with her husband Michael Auer in 2017, admits designing ballet costumes is a collaborative process.
She explains, “I work with the choreographer and the lighting, set and the video designers to establish the story we want to tell, the dancers’ journey and how the costumes fit into that. So if, for example, the choreographer has visualised an oversized skirt that dancers can’t move in, then either he has to change or I do. It’s about ensuring dancers can embody their characters and get the best out of the costumes.”
The RNZB’s 12th artistic director – and only the second woman to hold the position – was seven when she first strapped on her pointe shoes, little knowing she had fallen into the career she would have for life.
Later there were scholarships at the Boston Ballet School and Pacific Northwest Ballet School where she would dance all day, fitting her school work in at lunchtimes and evenings. At 17, there came a full-time role at Pacific Northwest Ballet, where Patricia remained until 2010, hanging up her tutu to become the artistic director of the Grand Rapids Ballet. But a few years ago, when she heard the RNZB was looking for an artistic director, she pulled up a chair.
“Michael and I first visited New Zealand in 1996 and spent three days driving something like 13,000km around the country. We both fell in love with it and knew we’d be back.”
Although Patricia would love to design more of the company’s costumes, she admits she’s “currently got quite a full plate”.
“I’m passionate about finding new people to be part of the creative process at the RNZB and there are quite a few Kiwi designers I would like to work with.”