In this studio we were tasked with creating moveable wearables for both able and disable bodied dancers. These wearables were meant to express sometime of physical or emotional trait that was personal to them in an abstract and unique way.
The dancer my team worked with was Meredith. In our interview we uncovered many different pieces of her story. However, her belief that dance was the closest thing to flight inspired us most. Once she talked about going up for jumps and feeling like she wouldn't come back down, we decided to create a wearable that would open up to the sky in someway. After experimenting around with different materials, we finally ended up with a skirt made out of vertical arced panels that opened up in an inside out umbrella-type way when she lifted her arms. These panels were all held together by strips of elastic to allow not only an up and down motion, but also a wave as well. Our final piece is made out of acrylic and 3D printed parts to attach the panels on to. We were very pleased to see how its simplistic design was able to achieve such an interesting effect.