Focus Study on Costume.

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Jade McGreevy

Section C

Focus Study Area: Costume

        The costume is very important for setting the scene as it shows the time it was set in. An example of this is ‘Late Flowering Lust’ by Matthew Bourne because the costumes were all 1930’s style. It sets the scene for the whole dance as the 1930’s costume and props stayed in that style throughout the dance.

        The costume also helps to clarify the roles of the characters. An example of this is ‘Ghost Dances’ by Christopher Bruce. The ghosts have very scary costumes because they are meant to be scary. The costumes enhance this making it a very realistic piece. The villagers however were wearing bright, tatty clothes. This was to show that they were happy which was shown in the brightness and that they were proud to wear their clothes even though they are tatty. It brings across their character that they are carefree and just want to have fun. The two sets of characters have very different costumes which clearly show that they are different and sets the obvious boundary between them because the ghosts look evil and scary and the villagers look happy and bright. This is also found in ‘Swansong’ also by Christopher Bruce. The guards were in similar uniforms which made them unified against the victim who was wearing tatty clothes.

        The theme of the dance is also shown by the costumes. An example of this is ‘Where Angles Fear To Tread’ by Mark Murphy. The main theme is different human relationships which are love (happiness) and hate (anger). The costumes vary slightly as some are black, some are grey and some are green. The black represents the anger and the lighter grey can represent calmer things. The theme is also shown in ‘Late Flowering Lust’ as the themes are the tennis match, the swimming pool and the party. These all have specific costumes that go with them and emphasise the dance because the dancers were wearing 1930’s tennis clothes on the tennis court, 1930’s swimwear by the swimming pool and evening dresses and suits to the party.

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        The social context is shown by the costumes because ‘Late Flowering Lust’ is site specific so it is set on the grounds of a mansion which obviously would have been where upper class people lived. The costumes were very smart and upper class which fitted in with the mansion. Also in the 1930’s it was only the upper class people that played tennis. The era is also shown here because it was set in the 1930’s so all the costumes were in a 1930’s style.

        Ghost Dances was set in South America in the 1980’s when there were problems with ...

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