Whether you see someone doing a little jig on the street or you watch the most amazing ballet performance, the appreciation of  people’s movements is often enhanced by the costumes they are wearing. In addition to providing warmth and protection, fabrics have been used throughout centuries to augment certain aspects of human performance, be it on stage, or in the boudoir, on the sports- or the battle-field, in uniform, tribal colors or under one’s flag.

The dance aspect was driven home to me last summer at the Philadelphia Art Museum which presented a nifty little exhibit on Dance – Movement/Rhythm/Spectacle. Paintings, lithographs and photographs about dance from the museum’s collection depicted costumes and dresses that caught my attention. The cross section below ranges from Toulouse-Lautrec from the portfolio Le Café Concert, Carlos Mérida Dance of the Quetzals, Leon Bakst The Pilgrim for the Ballet Russe’s performance of Le Dieu Bleu; one of the represented photographers was Barbara Morgan who photographed Martha Graham’s company at length.

 

And then there was Loîe Fuller, who knew how to make fabric fly – I just learned about her from indispensable dance critic Martha Ullman West who keeps me on my toes. The short clip below is a marvel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8soP3ry9y0

Fuller was partly responsible for the creation of one of the great treasures of WA, the Maryhill Museum.  I will devote another essay to that jewel eventually. For now, here is a clip of the fabulous 1946 exhibit that is now in their permanent collection, of French fashion on small mannequins, all the fashion I am willing to mention in the  context of fabrics. I cannot recommend a visit of the museum strongly enough. Eclectic only begins to describe it. http://www.maryhillmuseum.org/visit/exhibitions/ongoing-exhibitions/theatre-de-la-mode