Dance Costumes

Dance Costumes

The purpose of a dance costume is to enhance the dancer’s body and the concept of the Choreographer (Dance Catalog 219). “Costumes are clothes and they are art. They make the invisible ideas visible” (Nadel 241). Dance costume has evolved throughout time and involves many different factors to create a costume that will engage the audience.

Marie Camargo made a great impact on dance costume today. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries she “throws off the corset, bares her limbs, and dances barefoot” (Penrod 13). Duncan began a new look, inspired by the Greeks, of tunics and scarves. This simple costume inspired a new form of dance costume and new ways of moving (Penrod 13). This imitation of the Greek clothing freed the naturally beautiful lines of the human body and movement. This change in costume extended the dancer’s space, and caused the costume to be made to conform to the curves and shapes of the body as much as possible (Art of Production 57).