Guest Post- Jennifer Manderson, Dancer and Choreographer.

As part of the Cultural Catwalk "Beauty from different Directions" project we had the pleasure of working with Jennifer Manderson, the WEYA young leader based with Dance4.
Here she shares her experience of creating the dance and movement for the event...

To begin with, I spoke to the group about what their initial ideas for the costumes were – What was the stimulus? What were they trying to convey? It felt very important for me to focus on the ideas behind the costumes, as primarily, this was a textiles project. It was my job to showcase the artistic work of the costume makers through the medium of movement: to bring the costume to life! The group were very articulate about the ideas behind their creative process and the vocabulary they used I could automatically link to movement. It felt like a very natural process and I felt comfortable as both dancers and costume makers were clearly coming from the same place, on the same page.

I began by working in the long gallery with one of the dancers, Conrad. We had the immediate sense that the costumes needed to be provided with a character, as they were both based on the tudor time period. We decided to take inspiration from the paintings in the gallery (would be odd not to!) and this resulted in us choreographing separate movements from over 200 of the paintings. We also decided to introduce speech, and scripted some sections of our performance. We wanted the characters to be portrayed as extravagant and eccentric, but also quite cheeky. I felt this challenged the historic conventions of the art gallery space: viewers often feel that that they have to walk around in silence, quietly contemplating what they witness. By placing two unusual moving and speaking bodies in the space, we automatically challenged the audience members and the gallery space.


Hayley’s process in the bandstand was more of a challenge due to time constraints, but it all came together in the end! We focused on commanding and powerful movements for her entrance, moving slowly so that she demanded attention from the audience members as well as passers by. We decided that Hayley’s performance would be mostly improvised, due to the restrictions of the costume. However this allowed Hayley to really embody the performance and respond in the moment to the beautiful sound of the Chinese harp.

Working with the window ledge performers, Cherry Lui and Georgia Kalinowska
was really interesting for me as I had little studio time with the untrained dancers. I choreographed a movement motif that I hoped would be accessible for them and they managed exceptionally well. Although they were not given an opportunity to rehearse in the space until the day, they were really confident and adapted very well. I focused on grounded, earthy movements to create the movement material used.

At first I thought it may be very difficult to perform the piece for 3 hours straight, but in actual fact it was so enjoyable, and each performance so different, that the time flew by! I think the idea of a promenading audience, led by the drummer worked really well as the audience were in a situation where they were unsure in what unusual space a performer would be found.

The costumes were fantastic and the audience reaction was wonderful. Overall, definitely a success! It was such a pleasure to collaborate with Nottingham Castle and it was an extremely enjoyable project to be part of. We felt extremely welcome and I think this allowed our choreography and performance to reach it’s full potential.

Beauty from Different Directions, Dress rehearsal

On the 3rd September we had our dress rehearsal for the event on Saturday. The first time we'd bought together the dancers, costumes and musicians to see how everything worked together.

The day started with Russell and Pam from the Museum moving a couple of sculptures for us in the Long Gallery so the dancers could get into the Arches.

Next an engineer from PA company FRASP arrived to set up the sound systems for the long Gallery and our Chinese Harpist, (who would be playing live in the Bandstand).
They did an amazing job and where completely unruffled by our unusual requirements and my complete lack of PA knowledge.

Elsewhere the dancers where getting into costume and running through the choreography, for some their first chance to work on site without any visitors around. In the Bandstand it was also the first time all the elements of the ambitious Bandstand costume had been put together and the first time we would see how easily Hayley could get in and out of it.

After lunch our musicians arrived, Nick Landa a Dohl Drummer and Xiao Ling, our harpist, we also invited photographer Sian Stammers to document the day, capturing the performances and the "behind the scenes" of the event.

The only thing left to do was to run through the whole event, a total of around 40 minutes of music and dance that started at the Bandstand and then lead up into the Castle and through the Long Gallery.

Cherry Lui, our window ledge dancer.

Hayley Ross in the bandstand.

Jen Manderson and Conrad Jago in the Long Gallery.

It was a really productive day, highlighting a few things to still iron out and a couple of repairs and alterations to the costumes.
Also a huge amount of hard work was put in today by all involved, the museum staff, professionals, dancers, musicians and not forgetting the incredibly enthusiastic and hard working Illuminate members. I'll be posting a credits list as a separate post

Catwalk team- the final sessions and Costumes!

So everything got very busy toward the end of the project which is why it's taken me a while to get the last of the images up..

The finishing touches on the costumes...

Bandstand Costume
The most ambitious of the costumes and the biggest!

Marius completed the beautiful bodice-

Shuang and Monika completed the "egg" skirt, covering it with red fabric and then creating small organza flowers to cover it..

The finishing touches included a skirt for dancer Hayley to wear before she got into her egg skirt, the final details for her wings, a huge tent skirt to cover the bandstand and some Ostrich feathers....

Window Ledge Costume

The window ledge costume also gained a pleated skirt and some rag-rugged shoulder pads made by Amanda and Onaissa.

The Arches

Jen's costume had a red organza slip added to it and some edging on the bodice.

Conrad got an added cravat and cuffs and some gold fringing on his waistcoat. We also played around with using wigs for the characters.

Next was the dress rehearsal and seeing how our costumes actually worked in situ...

Catwalk team, more progress

We have had a very busy and productive week,as well as carrying on with our costumes we have had four of our dancers in for rehearsals, Jennifer Manderson, Conrad, Hayley Ross and Cherry Liu.

Here's how everything's looking.

Bandstand Costume

The wings- Doris spent pretty much the whole session smocking some beautiful feathered wings.

Shuang and Gena made the fibreglass frame for Hayley's skirt, with Hayley inside! It took a bit of work for her to get back out but it looks amazing...

The arms have been added to the bodice top, just need to take off the tissue paper to reveal the organza beneath and then we will ruffle the sleeves.

Marius cut out the pattern pieces for the bodice and then got to work cutting out lots of feathers for the huge train...

Window ledge costume

Amanda bought in the finished smocking for the costumes top and then designed the skirt and some shoulder pieces...

She cut out some sleeves which were added to the costume..

Arches Costume

Grace spent the whole session added lots of layers to the costume's skirt..

Sian and Dorota finished the jacket and started thinking about a cravat and cuffs to add some drama to the piece.

Catwalk team, creating costumes.

An overview of wednesdays session from Dorota Stumpf, one of our placement students from NTU.

The Bandstand Team

Marius’ corset is still in production. In the meantime, Shuang carried on developing the bodice and organza wings for the costume.

Meg began work on the creation of a cotton tape frame for the fibreglass rods which will be joined together to make a crinoline cage.

A total of 8 individual fibreglass rods will form the ribs for the skirt. This skeleton will form the basis of a convex “skirt tube” .

The Staircase team


Amanda progressed with the creation of a toile bodice for the costume. Large textural shoulder pads would be added at a later stage.

The girls marked a grid for the smocking of a waist hugging sash. The organic texture of the smocking suggests the trunk of a tree.

The Arches Team

Sian and Georgina considered the proportions of the gentleman’s waistoat and decided that an assymetric silhouette would offer an unnexpected twist to this costume.

The hem was cut diagonally and the armholes reshaped.

Designs for a stylish assymetric “bustle sash” belt were considered. The sash would bring together the separate components of the costume and be both functional and decorative.

To create drammatic impact, the waistcoat collar would need to large, rigid and upstanding. Lapels would be incorporated within the design, but not in a traditional way.

The inside neck would be dressed in a free-standing winged-collar and cravat - embodying recent fashion trends.

The shoulders will be dressed with shoulder pads made from offcuts of cardboard tubing. These would be drammatised both with colour contrast and textile surface texture.

The finalised pattern pieces were marked on the Batik, ready for cutting and sewing next week.

Georgina made progress with the sash belt and foundation layer for the skirt. She made individual rouleau ties for skirt fastenings.

Fringing might be incorporated into the bodice of the piece.

All in all, great progress.

Catwalk team, Making costumes,

The making has begun....

The Bandstand team..
This team have choosen to use the brown toned fabric. They had the idea of using the pheonix as a bases for their designs and have been researching Fang Huang, the chinese version of the pheonix.

Here is their design,

Marius is using his corsetry skills to make a corset for the costume and Shuang has taken on the task of making the wings. She is planning to use some of the smocking techniques we learnt in the first week to add texture to the pieces.

They have started to make a basic pattern to work from...

The Staircase team


This team have been playing with draping and folds for their design. The have choosen golds, blacks and browns for their fabric. They want their costume to look like it is growing out of the space.

The Arches Team


The Arches team have the most colourful fabrics, greens and reds plus the tartans. They are making more historical looking costumes, based on portraits in the Long Gallery where the costumes will be worn. They have been looking at bustles and Regency collars for ideas. Here are their designs.

and some images of the details that have inspired them...

work in progress...

This week we've been focusing on making the foundations to the clothes, so that next week we can start pinning and adding to them and seeing our ideas take form.

Media Team- Flyer

A sneak preview of the " Beauty from different directions" flyer designed by the media group with graphic designer Simon Helliwell from Design Source.