Costume in Performance - Materiality, Culture, and the Body

Zusatztext Donatella Barbieri’s own breadth of skills as a passionate lecturer, an inspiring teacher and a practitioner are all evident in this wonderful and uncompromising new book. Through the agility of her themes and connections from paleolithic cave painting to the most recent performances or archival discoveries, she never loses sight of the metamorphic power of costume. This is a daring and inspiring book. Informationen zum Autor Donatella Barbieri is Senior Research Fellow in Design for Performance at London College of Fashion, UK, and, previously, at the Victoria and Albert Museum, UK.With contributions from Melissa Trimingham , Senior Lecturer in Drama at the University of Kent, UK. Klappentext Winner of Best Performance Design and Scenography Publication Award, Prague Quadrennial 2019This beautifully illustrated book conveys the centrality of costume to live performance. Finding associations between contemporary practices and historical manifestations, costume is explored in six thematic chapters, examining the transformative ritual of costuming; choruses as reflective of society; the grotesque, transgressive costume; the female sublime as emancipation; costume as sculptural art in motion; and the here-and-now as history. Viewing the material costume as a crucial aspect in the preparation, presentation and reception of live performance, the book brings together costumed performances through history. These range from ancient Greece to modern experimental productions, from medieval theatre to modernist dance, from the 'fashion plays' to contemporary Shakespeare, marking developments in both culture and performance. Revealing the relationship between dress, the body and human existence, and acknowledging a global as well as an Anglo and Eurocentric perspective, this book shows costume's ability to cross both geographical and disciplinary borders. Through it, we come to question the extent to which the material costume actually co-authors the performance itself, speaking of embodied histories, states of being and never-before imagined futures, which come to life in the temporary space of the performance. With a contribution by Melissa Trimingham, University of Kent, UK Vorwort A lavishly illustrated overview of costume's role in performance through history, from ancient tradition to contemporary dance Zusammenfassung Winner of Best Performance Design and Scenography Publication Award, Prague Quadrennial 2019This beautifully illustrated book conveys the centrality of costume to live performance. Finding associations between contemporary practices and historical manifestations, costume is explored in six thematic chapters, examining the transformative ritual of costuming; choruses as reflective of society; the grotesque, transgressive costume; the female sublime as emancipation; costume as sculptural art in motion; and the here-and-now as history. Viewing the material costume as a crucial aspect in the preparation, presentation and reception of live performance, the book brings together costumed performances through history. These range from ancient Greece to modern experimental productions, from medieval theatre to modernist dance, from the ‘fashion plays’ to contemporary Shakespeare, marking developments in both culture and performance. Revealing the relationship between dress, the body and human existence, and acknowledging a global as well as an Anglo and Eurocentric perspective, this book shows costume’s ability to cross both geographical and disciplinary borders. Through it, we come to question the extent to which the material costume actually co-authors the performance itself, speaking of embodied histories, states of being and never-before imagined futures, which come to life in the temporary space of the performance. With a contribution by Melissa Trimingham, University of Kent, UK Inhaltsverzeichnis Preface...

List of contents

Preface

Introduction
1 The First Costume: Ritual and Reinvention
2 Costuming Choruses: Spectacle and the Social Landscape on Stage
3 The Grotesque Costume: The Comical and Conflicted 'Other' Body
4 The Flight off the Pedestal
5 Agency and Empathy: Artists Touch the Body
6 A Different Performativity: Society, Culture and History on Stage

Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index

About the author

Donatella Barbieri is Senior Research Fellow in Design for Performance at London College of Fashion, UK, and, previously, at the Victoria and Albert Museum, UK.

With contributions from Melissa Trimingham, Senior Lecturer in Drama at the University of Kent, UK.

Summary

Winner of Best Performance Design and Scenography Publication Award, Prague Quadrennial 2019

This beautifully illustrated book conveys the centrality of costume to live performance. Finding associations between contemporary practices and historical manifestations, costume is explored in six thematic chapters, examining the transformative ritual of costuming; choruses as reflective of society; the grotesque, transgressive costume; the female sublime as emancipation; costume as sculptural art in motion; and the here-and-now as history.

Viewing the material costume as a crucial aspect in the preparation, presentation and reception of live performance, the book brings together costumed performances through history. These range from ancient Greece to modern experimental productions, from medieval theatre to modernist dance, from the ‘fashion plays’ to contemporary Shakespeare, marking developments in both culture and performance.

Revealing the relationship between dress, the body and human existence, and acknowledging a global as well as an Anglo and Eurocentric perspective, this book shows costume’s ability to cross both geographical and disciplinary borders. Through it, we come to question the extent to which the material costume actually co-authors the performance itself, speaking of embodied histories, states of being and never-before imagined futures, which come to life in the temporary space of the performance.

With a contribution by Melissa Trimingham, University of Kent, UK

Product details

• Authors: Donatella Barbieri, Donatella (Victoria and Albert Museum and London College of Fashion Barbieri
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.10.2019
• EAN: 9781350106383
• ISBN: 978-1-350-10638-3
• No. of pages: 264
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > Plastic arts; Mode und Bekleidung, Schauspieltechniken, DESIGN / Fashion & Accessories, Art & Art Instruction, ART / Performance, PERFORMING ARTS / Theater / Miming