Improv
Written by Hayla Hurt
You can immediately recognize a dancer on your social media feed. Their clothes are styled in a way that doesn’t make sense to you. Pants with one leg completely rolled up. Hoodie sort of on, half of the garment catching up with their movements. Accents and accessories you only see on the streets perfectly blended into studiowear. The most intriguing part? They’re making it work.
Dancers’ relationship to fashion, to me, is fascinating. It’s magic. It’s innovative. Contrary to what the public may think, it’s deeper than the surface level, ‘wearing too many layers and yet still showing skin’ stereotype they’re known for. It serves as both a source of creative inspiration for fellow dancers and audiences alike, and as a tool for many purposes. It can signify identity, tell stories, encourage resistance and change, and cultivates community. Dancers become engineers with expertise in making clothing their own without sacrificing practicality.
How do these worlds tie together? Much like movements of the body, fashion is used as an extension of the self and a reflection of recurring themes that artists, amongst all styles of dance, hold close to them.
Improvisation: a spontaneous form of expression that is free and unstructured; a regular practice of artists, especially dancers.
New personas of students emerge after the heels they put on left them starstruck at their reflection in the studio mirror.
Endless waves linger in the mind of the audience watching ballerinas move across the stage, the textures of their clothing designed to enhance their movements. They appear weightless, like gravity no longer matters.
Hip hop dancers form a cypher on the sidewalk, sporting familiar outfits composed of styles that they’ve claimed as their own. They grace the front pages of magazines and the slots of primetime TV, their way with clothes cemented as symbols of a new cultural change.
Traditional ideas of ballet are rejected in modern ensembles, the lifting of strict rules and technique being reflected in free flowing clothing. Their clothes assisting them in showing their true selves on the floor, you can visibly see them constrict and release years of restriction.
Dance teams congregate backstage, their matching uniforms symbolizing unity and identity. Comradery and connection fill the air as they mix and mingle, cultivating a new web of community in a matter of hours.
A dancer in class pulls her pant leg up, pushes her hoodie off to the side, desperate to cool down in the packed room. Her fabric may lay on her body in an unconventional way, but her confidence convinces you that you never knew how clothes were supposed to be worn in the first place.
Dancers use fashion to help them build bridges that connect what they want to say to those who want to listen. As a lover of both, I encourage you to enter dance spaces to see this brought to life. I hope you see the magic I see, the vibrant costumes, the innovative styling, new perspectives freely shared without hesitation, celebrations of identity, and nods to those that paved the way. 