<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>This article examines costume design within three Finnish contemporary dance productions in the 2010s, <bold><italic>AmazinGRace, Noir? and The Earth Song,</italic></bold> by respective costume designers Soile Savela, Sanna Levo and Karoliina Koiso-Kanttila, to identify the ways in which costume works within performances with political themes through cases that make use of ‘everyday’ garments as costumes. Here, everyday garments as <bold><italic>costume</italic></bold> refers to identifiable forms, silhouettes and connotations, as opposed to fantasy or ‘abstract’ costumes. Political, as defined by the themes of these performances, means subject to power relations: societal inequality, ethnicity and otherness and climate change. Despite having shared ground in employing everyday, real-life costume components, all three designs operate with a distinct strategy. Hence, this article discusses three strategies for materializing political aesthetics through costume: one that is <bold><italic>inclusive</italic></bold> in its use of ‘ordinary’ clothes as costume; one that builds itself through <bold><italic>ready-made</italic></bold> connotation and representation in costume; and one that is <bold><italic>associative</italic></bold> in its approach towards the capacity of costume. This investigation, from the perspective of a costume researcher and designer, not only argues for the potential of costume to communicate political meaning through its aesthetic choices but also reveals the versatility embedded in this under-researched area of everyday garments as costume within contemporary dance performance.</p></abstract>

This article examines costume design within three Finnish contemporary dance productions in the 2010s, AmazinGRace, Noir? and The Earth Song, by respective costume designers Soile Savela, Sanna Levo and Karoliina Koiso-Kanttila, to identify the ways in which costume works within performances with political themes through cases that make use of ‘everyday’ garments as costumes. Here, everyday garments as costume refers to identifiable forms, silhouettes and connotations, as opposed to fantasy or ‘abstract’ costumes. Political, as defined by the themes of these performances, means subject to power relations: societal inequality, ethnicity and otherness and climate change. Despite having shared ground in employing everyday, real-life costume components, all three designs operate with a distinct strategy. Hence, this article discusses three strategies for materializing political aesthetics through costume: one that is inclusive in its use of ‘ordinary’ clothes as costume; one that builds itself through ready-made connotation and representation in costume; and one that is associative in its approach towards the capacity of costume. This investigation, from the perspective of a costume researcher and designer, not only argues for the potential of costume to communicate political meaning through its aesthetic choices but also reveals the versatility embedded in this under-researched area of everyday garments as costume within contemporary dance performance.

Political by Design: Costume Design Strategies within the Finnish Contemporary Dance Productions AmazinGRace, Noir? and The Earth Song

Nordic Journal of Dance

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

This article examines costume design within three Finnish contemporary dance productions in the 2010s, AmazinGRace, Noir? and The Earth Song, by respective...

Political by Design: Costume Design Strategies within the Finnish Contemporary Dance Productions AmazinGRace, Noir? and The Earth Song

Data publikacji: 29 wrz 2020

Zakres stron: 14 - 31

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/njd-2018-0003

Słowa kluczowe
costume, costume design, dance, performance, aesthetic, political

© 2018 Tua Helve, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Political by Design: Costume Design Strategies within the Finnish Contemporary Dance Productions AmazinGRace, Noir? and The Earth Song

Data publikacji: 29 wrz 2020

Zakres stron: 14 - 31

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/njd-2018-0003

Słowa kluczowecostume, costume design, dance, performance, aesthetic, political

© 2018 Tua Helve, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Słowa kluczowe
costume, costume design, dance, performance, aesthetic, political