Transcript
Speaker: I'm Chris Farenthold, Director of Outreach at Madison Ballet, and this is at the Bar, your behind-the-scenes look at the ideas, stories, and creative processes shaping Madison Ballet's work.
Speaker: Each episode brings our community a little closer to the dancers, choreographers, and collaborators who are making ballet in Madison right now. Whether you're a seasoned ballet domain, current or former dancer, or simply curious about how dance gets made, we warmly invite you into the room where it happens.
Speaker: Welcome back to At The Bar with Madison Ballet. I'm Chris Ferenthal, Director of Outreach at Madison Ballet. And today I'm joined by Janessa Irwin, the costume designer for the upcoming production of Jekyll and Hyde. So welcome Janessa, thanks so much for doing this.
Speaker: Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to talk to you about our new project. Well, before we get into the project itself, let's talk about your background in in ballet. How did you find yourself in ballet in particular or dance generally?
Speaker: And when or how did you know this was something that you would want to make a life in if you could? I grew up in a very musical family. My parents were both music teachers and professional musicians. So the arts were, you know, very encouraged in my house. And i was dying to start ballet lessons when I was like seven years old. I don't remember exactly what made me want to start ballet. But, you know, my mom, of course, was like, sure, ballet sounds great. So I started ballet when I was eight years old.
Speaker: And i loved the performance aspect of it. I remember the first time she took me to see the the Nutcracker was when I was eight. It was right after I had started my ballet lessons. And she said, this year, instead of being in the Nutcracker, why don't we go see it so you can see you know what you could be doing on stage?
Speaker: Of course, I was like, wow, I definitely want to do that. That looks amazing. So the following year, I performed for the first time in the Nutcracker. And that's when I really started loving being on stage, being a part of a big group of people doing something together. that was really, really cool for me. And then when I was a teenager, i you know, was your typical obsessed little bun head. I was living, breathing ballet. i didn't want to leave the studio and decided, you know, I want to do this. I want to pursue this for a career. And, you know, I was very lucky to have a family that was really supportive of that. And I ended up going to several different ballet schools. I went to the Nutmeg Conservatory for the Arts to study full time when I was in my later years in high school. I attended summer programs at Boston Ballet and Colorado Ballet, and eventually made my way to New Jersey where I had some professional contracts, which was amazing. Well, of course, the Nutcracker is usually the ballerina's first glimpse of the life that she can pursue, and male dancers too, because
Speaker: There's Clara, there's the Nutcracker, there's Snowcorp. There's so many different roles that you can aspire to. Did you go through the entire baby mouse up through Snowcorp? What progression did you make? through Yeah, let's see. What was my progression? So I think I was a little older, so I didn't start as a mouse. I started as an angel and a party girl. i rose up through, i don't know, marzipan, snow, flowers, candy canes, I think in one version. You know, I've been in probably...
Speaker: four to five different versions of the Nutcracker, different productions. So in all those roles, I feel I've danced everything except probably Paula Chanel, Rat King, and Sugar Plum Fairy. I've never been the Sugar Plum Fairy. I was the Snow Queen ones.
Speaker: There's time, you know, if you want your Rat King to debut, I'm sure we can find a company for you. That was my husband's role. My husband was also a professional dancer and he did the Rat King. ah Yeah. Big Ham, I assume. Yes. yes yeah Outside of the Nutcracker in your dancing career, both in school and professionally, were there choreographers or roles that in particular you enjoyed dancing or looked forward to?
Speaker: Yeah, one of my favorite roles that I ever danced as a professional was the fairy godmother in Cinderella. And that was the first time I had really heard the Prokofiev score in full to Cinderella. I'd never seen a professional version of Cinderella done before.
Speaker: And so to be cast as the fairy godmother was amazing, first of all, like dream come true. But I really connected with the choreography in that one because there is a big waltz section that the fairy godmother does with the fairies. I love a good waltz. Always love dancing Waltz of the Flowers, too. So I loved that role. And I was also really lucky when I was a student at Nutmeg to study a little bit of the Martha Graham technique. And I was selected to learn Lamentation by Martha Graham. which was a very powerful experience as a student. I think it would probably even be more powerful now that I'm older. i never performed it, but just being in the studio and learning that from one of the dancers who had learned it from Martha was just an amazing experience. I love when classically trained ballet dancers get to see what it's like with that bit of modern or contemporary coming into their technique, because that's certainly where a contemporary ballet is now, is sort of a a fusion or at least a discipline that can draw upon many of those discoveries made throughout the 20th century.
Speaker: If you were an audience member, are there ballets that you didn't dance in or never would have, but that are some favorites of yours or that, you know, if they're on the calendar, you see if your schedule allows you to make a trip?
Speaker: Yeah, definitely. When I was a kid, I grew up near Saratoga Springs, New York in upstate. So Saratoga Springs at SPAC, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, used to be the home for New York City ballet in the summer. We went to see New York City ballet a lot. And I remember very vividly the first time I saw Jerome Robbins' Glass Pieces. That was amazing. I loved that ballet. a lot of Balanchine ballets that I loved. Vienna Waltz's was one of them. just the phenomenal like sets and not your traditional ballet ballet, but the costumes in that are to die for.
Speaker: And I've also had the opportunity to see some of the more recent crossovers in Broadway and ballet. So I saw An American in Paris, which I believe was choreographed by Christopher Wieldon. And the dancing and the choreography in that is just beautiful. And I also saw Carousel, which was choreographed by Justin Peck from New York City Ballet. And so those were really beautiful pieces to see. And then also you have the singing and the dancing and the acting on top of that. And of course, any full length ballet. I love a good story ballet. You know, the big dramatic Swan Lake and Giselle and La Corsaire. What a gift to have grown up near the summer home of City Ballet. My goodness.
Speaker: I heard you mentioned costumes that you liked. So that seems like ah a good transition into... Your current career, how and when did you get into costume design? And was that something that was always a bit of a flicker in your your eye, even as a dancer or as a child?
Speaker: Or is that something that you acquired a desire to pursue later in life? I didn't really have an interest in costume design early on until much later in my career, but I did learn how to sew at a pretty early age. My mom and my grandmother knew how to use a sewing machine and would often have their sewing machine out for some repair or something. So I learned how to sew from them and also in home economics class, which I took when I was in middle school. My grandparents bought me my very first sewing machine as a graduation present from high school. And i was interested through high school in kind of just making my own clothes. I felt like, you know, everything off the rack was like the same as what everyone else was wearing. And I wanted to be a little bit unique. And i was like, well, I could make this dress out of this cool fabric and learned how to use a pattern and stuff. So i think my love of design started with actually construction and sewing.
Speaker: I was interested in fashion for a little while. There was a point in my career where I was contemplating a change and thought actually about going back to fashion design school. But I ended up moving to American Repertory Ballet as a dancer, which is where I currently work.
Speaker: When I was a dancer there, this was way back in like 2011, because I knew how to sew, I applied for an assistant position in their costume shop just to help sew little things and make little accessories for the shows that they were putting on. And I loved it. And the woman who was in charge of the costume department at the time, you know, was like, Janessa, you're good at this. And I'm looking to kind of step back in a few years. Would this be something you'd be interested in doing full time as my assistant? And I can teach you the ropes and, you know, eventually you would take over for me. So that was like a very big turning point in my career. It was really scary for me to say, yes, I want to do this. i didn't have to say goodbye to dancing, but it was it was definitely a change in my like daily schedule. But I did I made the leap and I started as an assistant. Then I became the manager of the costume department for the school.
Speaker: I worked alongside the costume supervisor for the company. Eventually she got another job. So I took over running costumes for the whole department. And in that time was also when I started doing more design work for American repertory ballet, in addition to just kind of coordinating the costumes and making new costumes. That was when I started designing full ballets from conversations with the choreographer,
Speaker: through seeing it all made and then into the theater. Oh, that's fascinating. And another good argument for just putting yourself out there when there is an opportunity or even when there's not, create one because you never know what will end up happening.
Speaker: Dancers, especially female dancers, you know grow up basically having to do their own makeup and then sewing their ribbons on. So almost everyone could have a fashion base if they wanted.
Speaker: I always tell dancers that too. Like ballet can be a very challenging art form because it's so dependent on your body. Not everyone has beautiful feet or super straight knees or beautiful turnout. I did not have great turnout and that held me back a lot, you know, from getting a lot of jobs.
Speaker: But anyone can learn how to sew. Yeah, I tell dancers that sometimes when they're getting like down on themselves. They're not just good at dancing. You can be good at lots of other things. One of my particular interests since we've started both Madison Ballet Special Projects and then continuing into this year has been learning more about the functional fashion aspect of dance.
Speaker: dance costumes, they have to work under extreme stress and they have to work night after night and they have to do things that straight play, Broadway, opera costumes don't necessarily have to do. So how has your, having been a professional dancer, informed what you design and what you make in terms of knowing exactly what these pieces of art are going to be used for?
Speaker: Yeah, that's so important because in ballet, if the costume doesn't allow the dancer to do what they need to do, there's no point in wearing the costume. You might as well just put on leotard and tights and go do it. So if you're trying to create a character you're trying to tell a story and you have to have the dancers wear certain things, how it's made is crucial to whether or not the costume will be successful. And so I think coming from a background of sewing first helped me a lot because a lot of designers don't sew. They can sew. A lot of them don't. If they're coming from a traditional, you know, they've gone through fashion design school and they go into costume design. They do take sewing classes, but it's not a focus. The focus is on the design. So from my perspective, knowing how things are made means that when I design a costume, I'm thinking about that first. Like, well, how are we going to make this in a way that, you know, our male dancer can lift their arms fully over their head? Being a dancer, I know what they are going to have to do. Even if I don't know exactly the choreography, i definitely know they're going to have to lift their arms over their head. Yeah. or they're gonna have to do, you know, a split or something. So a lot of times when I have dancers in my fittings too, I'm making them do really silly things in their fitting to make sure that the costume is gonna do what it needs to do. And sometimes a dancer will say, oh no, i feel like I'm gonna rip it. And I say, just do it rip it. If it rips in this seam, then I know that that seam is too tight and either it needs a stretch gusset in there or it needs to be looser or something.
Speaker: It's really important for me to design from the perspective of every joint will need to be flexible. And then sometimes it goes the opposite way too. A lot of people think, you know, all your costumes must need to be really stretchy and so the dancers can move. But then if you have a woman who's being partnered She actually is safer in more of a structured bodice that doesn't stretch because the man needs something to grab onto to lift her. if there's a lot of extra fabric or something that's extra super stretchy or slippery, his hands are going to slip. And then it's a safety issue. And that is also very important to me that the dancers feel safe. They feel comfortable. They feel confident. Yeah. Otherwise, again, there's no point in wearing the costume. Right.
Speaker: Well, in your work at American Repertory Ballet, are there productions that stick out in your mind as either important milestones or pieces that you particularly enjoyed or were proud of? Yes, I had so many, have so many, you know, amazing ballets that I've done with American Repertory Ballet that, you know, stick with me. My first full length ballet, which I consider, you know, two acts, was Kirk Peterson's Beauty and the Beast.
Speaker: And that was just a wonderful project to work on because it was my biggest challenge in terms of the number of costumes, the number of dancers. Every dancer had to have two full costumes plus accessories and all the extra things. So it was a lot. And it was also very rooted in the original French fairy tale.
Speaker: So research was really important to me and to have this kind of aesthetic of the historical time period and how to take those period costumes and make them danceable or interpret them in a way that would show the dancers legs and, you know, allow them to move and do all that stuff. so That was an amazing ballet. I've also done several works with Ethan Stiefel as a choreographer, and he's wonderful to work with because he has this great balance of knowing what he wants, but then allowing me to be creative and kind of put my own spin on things. I've worked with a lot of choreographers on that whole spectrum of, you know, sometimes a choreographer comes in and they know exactly what they want. And, you know, they even have pictures to show me. And then basically it's my job to just make sure that's executed in the way that they want. And sometimes a choreographer comes in and they're like, I have no idea what the costume should look like. And so when that is the case, then it's my job to kind of guide them, but make sure that what I'm giving to them matches their music and their feeling and their choreography and all of that. So sometimes there's a lot of back and forth early on to make sure we get the right look for them. But yeah, working with contemporary choreographers like Kylie Kwan and Jamalik Claire Davidson, and all of those have been really, really fun. Yeah. Well, transitioning to the present project that you and Madison Ballet are collaborating on, how did you first make contact with Jamalik or the company?
Speaker: Jamalik choreographed on ARB Dancers a number of years ago. he did a piece called Move into Bach, which was this beautiful, super contemporary, very sleek piece. He was one of the choreographers actually that came to me and he was like, this is what I want for my costumes. And he even had little drawings. And he was like, I'm not a costume designer, but like, can we do something like this? And I said, Jamalik, you are a costume designer. Look at how beautiful your little sketches are. And i can tell exactly what you want and I can interpret that. And so we basically had those made for him.
Speaker: The funny thing about that project was that all the costumes were made out of different types of green spandex and mesh. They were basically unitards and leotards. This was my first time working with him. So of course, I was, you know, was a little nervous. I wanted to do a good job and I wanted to impress him. So I spent a week or two pulling all these swatches of different shades of green and making sure they all matched. And I put them in like piles together so that he could see what they all looked like. And so I brought that to his first design meeting and he I said, you know, these are all the different options we have. This one is my particular favorite. I think these colors work the best together, but there is many other shades of green if that doesn't work for you. And he said, well, honestly, I can't really see the color green because I'm colorblind to that color. So whatever you have looks great.
Speaker: And I was like, oh, wow, I shouldn't have stressed out so much about getting the perfect shade of green. But I think, you know, even putting in all that effort was well worth it for any project because, you know, it's important to get things like colors right. So that was my first time working with Jamalik. And then he reached out to me for Jekyll and Hyde because, you know, he was like, this is a pretty big project we're doing. And yeah, I would love for you to help us with it.
Speaker: First of all, you can never know what shade or if someone that you're working for is colorblind. So Your preparation, I'm sure, was part of the appeal to him in working with you again. Hearing about his process is something that's been interesting to hear from both him and his collaborator, Richard, as choreographer, and then from other people that he's worked with. So what was the pitch that he made to you about this piece? Or what vision or prompts did he give you in bringing you on board and saying, help us make this?
Speaker: He was very organized, I believe, in his preparation for Jekyll and Hyde. When he first emailed me, he had attached an idea board of some images and colors and concepts written on there that he wanted. But what that one little mood board told me was that he had spent a lot of time thinking already about what he wanted the stage to look like, what he wanted the dancers to look like. what he wanted the lighting to be. He already had the music. So that's always a really great sign for me because I know that he has a direction he wants to go in. And so then I was able to come in and look at his idea board. I made my own idea boards for him and Richard based on that.
Speaker: I kind of went off on my own and did a lot of research because we had talked after he sent me this idea board. We chatted more about kind of what he wanted to do and what the aesthetic would be.
Speaker: You know, the original story is set in Victorian London. That was the starting point, but he really didn't want it to be like period Victorian London. He wanted it to be a lot more contemporary set in like modern age. So I took the idea of like, okay, well, we're starting in Victoria, London, you know, but we're going into the future. There can be hints of the past in there as there always is with even futuristic projects, I feel. That was kind of where we started. then had to kind of funnel all of those ideas down. i made a mood board kind of for each character. And then Jamalik and Richard... looked at them and they said, okay, well, I like this and this and this from each board. And then I took those ideas and then did my sketches from there. So Jamalik did have an overall aesthetic and idea for me, but he really gave me a lot of a lot of creative space to do research and to kind of come up with looks that I felt would work really well with the characters and the storyline. It makes sense that collaboration is really a recursive process where you kind of get an idea, respond to that idea, they respond to your response, et cetera, et cetera. And eventually that having to end up on stage in an object on a person
Speaker: is one of those fascinating aspects of ballet or any performance. So speaking of what you ended up making for on the company, let's talk through some of the looks. So what aesthetic, or I guess, how would you describe what the costumes for like a Lucy or Emma or Jekyll Hyde core ensemble, what did you end up with?
Speaker: One of the really fun things i was able to do in my research is kind of take this idea of, you know, this like psychological, transition, this kind of inside turning out and dual personalities. I kind of took a medical approach a little bit. And I did a lot of research on x-ray imaging and scans and brain neurons and synapses. So I have a lot of fabrics that are kind of like webs or like laces that kind of gave that impression of like seeing the inside of someone's brain and his like transformation. in both directions, right? He's like fighting with himself there, the Jekyll character. Color was also really important in order to help us tell the story. We wanted the Jekyll version to be a bit lighter. It's all very gray scale, little bit of blue for Jekyll. And then
Speaker: The hide side is very dark, mysterious, a lot of sheer fabrics, a little bit of sparkle in there because we're kind of going with this idea of the hide is kind of the underground nightlife feel. So for Jekyll's costume specifically, he's wearing a a very modern tailored shirt that you would see on any man today. but we kind of took a little bit of that Victorian inspiration and gave him this like half corset belt. So we have a little bit of corsetry going on. And same for Emma. Emma is kind of Jekyll's female counterpart. And so she's also in kind of a gray blue, very beautiful and flowy and sweet. We have her in this beautiful darker lace overdress. She also has a corset belt, which was partially because of coming from this original place of Victorian London, but also because I had a feeling she was going to need to be partnered a lot. And I was like, let's give her something structured so that she can be moved around pretty easily.
Speaker: And then our side character, you know, is as I said, darker. He's wearing all these beautiful sheer shirts with like lace details and a little bit of sparkle.
Speaker: His colors also go more into burgundy and like purple. i made Lucy purple. And she's supposed to be kind of our our nightlife entertainment. And so I took a lot of inspiration from historical circus costumes and cabarets to kind of give her a feel of like a little bit vintage, but also kind of timeless. I want the audience to see her and know exactly where she's supposed to be coming from, but also not time period specific. I didn't want her to be like too old fashioned. So another aspect of your job that I'm just honestly curious about is when you turn things over to the artistic director or the production designer whatever, do you say goodbye to your work or is it an ongoing collaboration through tech performance? How does that work either generally when you're in residence at ARB or when you're working, collaborating from afar, like with Madison Ballet?
Speaker: Once the dancers get from their rehearsal period in the studio into the theater for tech, we have a wardrobe supervisor who is in charge of the costumes in the theater. So it's their job to do, you know, organizing the costumes, making sure the dancers get dressed, have everything they need. They're in charge of the laundry. There might be little repairs that come up because there's a lot of wear and tear on the costumes. So the wardrobe supervisor is someone I have a very close relationship with in the theater, no matter where I work. You know, I want to know who this wardrobe supervisor is and I want to be there to help them because, you know, in my opinion, this is not my ballet. This is what I'm bringing to the overall production. You know, i can't just say like, well, here you go. It's your problem now. I really want to make sure that everything is working well. And I like to sit in the house during the tech rehearsals so I can see how everything's looking under the lighting. There might be transitions that we didn't even have a chance to practice until we get into the theater and we might
Speaker: see something we didn't think we were going to see or we don't see something we thought we were going to see. And so it might mean some little changes to the costume itself or when we're changing costumes, things like that. So I want to make sure that as the designer, I'm helping the wardrobe supervisor work through all that so that it runs smoothly after opening night. And once we get to opening night is kind of when I consider, you know, now it's not mine anymore. Now it belongs and to the dancers, the choreographers, and ultimately the audience. It's for them now. And i always hope they like what they see. So will we be seeing you out here in Madison? Yes, I will be coming to Madison. i will be there for Tech Week through Thursday night. Then I come back home for Halloween with my kids. But yes, I will be in Madison for Tech Week and through the initial opening night Thursday night.
Speaker: Oh, that's wonderful. So beyond your current work and looking back on your entire career and its trajectory, what is the future for you in dance and costuming and design and and whatever? What else do you have going on and where do you see yourself eventually?
Speaker: Well, I hope I'll be designing. ah You know, I love what I do and, you know, it brings me such joy and energy to do what I do. So I hope that I will be in designing for ballet and dance. Also opera, theater, TV, you know, I would not turn down any of those opportunities.
Speaker: The other thing that I've been doing lately is I started a ballet costume rental company called Florimans. And we have a collection of costumes that A, are accessible for students who might be doing, for example, competitions or have solos in their student performance that they need a really beautiful, fancy costume for. and also professional dancers who are doing guesting gigs or need access to a tutu costume. But also I feel that having a rental company allows me to share the history behind each costume. You know, there's a really rich history in ballet itself, obviously being passed down for hundreds of years. And we're doing the same steps that Louis XIV was doing, just in ah in a more modern way.
Speaker: That's really important. And when costumes are made well and cared for, They also can last for decades. And just the history of wearing a costume that someone amazing wore before you, like, how cool is that experience? So I'm trying to preserve, you know, the history of a lot of these costumes that I have in my floorman's costume collection. So that's really important to me, too. Oh, that's really beautiful. And I can agree more with one of the aspects of ballet that is most, I think, singular is its continuity of its history. And the fact that you've managed to help mitigate the cost of these very expensive things that I don't think the public recognizes exactly how expensive they are. It's funny if you get on ballet internet for any length of time, you'll see people traveling on planes with their tutu or yeah angsting over how to care for it. But also, yeah, keeping that record of who's born what. And think that's one of those most amazing and attractive aspects of the art form. So that's wonderful. And I applaud you for finding a way to solve many problems at once. thank That's great. So what advice would you give to both a current professional dancer or a student who doesn't know if they want to continue into dance professionally for looking inward, outward at what they might want to pursue in and outside of dance?
Speaker: Just pursue it. Sometimes we can feel when we're dancers that our world is very small. And if I don't make it as a dancer that I'm some sort of failure or, oh, I, you know, I wasn't good enough at this and I feel bad about myself. The world is a lot bigger than ballet. Ballet is really important to the world, I feel. I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't truly believe that art is, you know, imperative to our human existence. So it is really important that you are dancing and that you have danced and all of that. But there are so many opportunities to stay in the field of art, even if you're not dancing. You know, in my job alone, I've done costume design. I've done costume construction and sewing. I've done wardrobe management and dressing. Like that's like four jobs that I've done just in costumes alone.
Speaker: There's also, you know, scenic. If you're a good artist, you can paint scenery. Or build scenery. You can learn how to do lighting and electrical. There's technical stuff backstage in the theater, which opens up stuff to do in theater, opera, Broadway, all of that fun stuff. There's stage management if you're a really organized person. There's stage management and production management. That's all. imperative to keeping all of these shows on stage and functioning well. And there's also things like we're always needing to raise money for the arts, you know, so things like development and fundraising, if you're good with people, that might be something you look into. So my biggest piece of advice, honestly, would be talk to these people who work with your school or your company you know, and see what they like about their jobs and what's challenging about their jobs. And if you wanted to go into something like that, what would you have to do? Would you have to go to school? Would you have to do an internship or something like that? But that's really how I fell into my job. It was kind of completely by accident and kind of random. So you never know when an opportunity will present itself. And so just be open to anything. And sometimes, you know, you try something and you're like, wow, that's not for me. And then you backtrack and, you know, you try again. i also used to feel like when I was a dancer, I don't have that much time. I'm, you know, I'm in my 20s. I'm an adult now.
Speaker: Well, now I'm almost 40. And I'm like, wow, I had so much time. And now I feel like I even have more time if I wanted to, you know, have a career change. You have time and you can try things. And it's OK if you fall flat on your face and you'll figure it out. Well, I like that. That's also, ah like you said, really good advice for those of us in the field and or around 40. So yeah thank you so much, Janessa, for joining us. And I would encourage everyone to come out and see Janessa's work, beginning with the Thursday preview that is open to the public on October twenty ninth
Speaker: at MyArts and continuing through the weekend opening. We have shows on October 30th, Friday, and then Halloween, and then the Sunday after on November 1st at MyArts in Madison, Wisconsin. So thank you once again, Janessa, and I look forward to seeing you out here in Tech Week.
Speaker: Thank you so much. I'll see you soon.
Speaker: Thank you for tuning in to at the Bar with Madison Ballet. If you enjoyed this episode, we invite you to experience Madison Ballet in person by joining us at one of our upcoming performances or community events.
Speaker: From accessible, innovative productions to in-depth conversations with artists, our goal is to create welcoming spaces where everyone can experience ballet in a meaningful way.
Speaker: You can find performance dates, event details, and ticket information on our website and social media platforms. Whether it's your first time attending or you're a long-time supporter, we'd love to see you in the audience and share the experience with you live.
Speaker: Thanks again for listening. We hope to see you at the ballet soon.
