In its mission to Brooklyn-ize The Nutcracker, a holiday classic, Brooklyn Ballet brings in street and modern dancers, infuses African dance styles and sets its multicultural, intergenerational cast on Flatbush Avenue. Building The Brooklyn Nutcracker in installments allows Artistic and Founding Director Lynn Parkerson to explore new innovations and collaborate with new artistic partners during Brooklyn Ballet's home performance season.
This season's focus is the iconic Snow scene and Drosselmeyer 1.0, and the talented collaborators are popping artist Mike "Supreme" Fields, costume designer Avram Finkelstein of YMX by Yellowman and Nick Vermeer and Bill Ward of hacker collective NYC Resistor. In a true wonderland of possibilities, Lynn, Avram and Nick have worked together to dream and design a techno tutu, a motion sensor skirt that mimics the pattern of falling snow with LED lights as each performer dances through the scene. Wintry projections will follow suit, using the dancers' patterns on stage as a trigger for producing a snowy effect on the theater cyc.
In addition to our ballerinas' motion sensor tutus, a more intricately crafted and programmed costume design is needed for street dancer Mike "Supreme" Fields, who will be playing Drosselmeyer in the upcoming production. Supreme's ever-exciting but ever-so-subtle pops, puffs, deflations and undulations might be difficult to translate in a larger theater atmosphere. This season's experiments with motion sensor technology will make it possible to accentuate and further project his skilled movement through actual illumination of those moves.
Brooklyn Ballet needs $13,200 to fully realize the technological aspects of the Snow and Drosselmeyer 1.0 design and we are asking you to help us raise at least $10,000:
$1,500 in collaborating artists fees
$3,100 for actual construction of the costumes
$1,000 for costume materials
$2,000 for tech materials
$5,600 for dancers fees
Thank you for donating and helping us bring ballet into the 21st century. We can't wait to share this work with you in performance!
Risks and challenges
Brooklyn Ballet's collaboration with popping and street dance artists delights and rocks the expectations of the average ballet connoisseur. The intricacy of a street artist's movements can be hard to translate on the stage, especially in a larger arena. That's where the costume technology comes to play most effectively, helping to translate the minutia to the full audience, to the last row in the theater. Developing the technology to suit the subtleties as well as the grand gestures of a dancer's movement will be a challenge for the hacker collective NYC Resistor and costume designer YMX by Yellowman but ther lies the creativity and fun!
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- (30 days)