Exploring the Relationship Between Fashion and Dance

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Having been a dancer for several years and a budding fashion designer, it has always eluded me why there is rarely a clear direct link between the two. Occassionally, dance dabbles in fashion, seeping in through sportswear and some flashy television commercials, but it’s rare to find any more depth in it. Fashion appears to found in dance, but most of this comes in the form of costumes for shows. My own experience of semi-professional urban dance styles only touches the surface of dance as a whole, and by no means is a fair representation of it, but it’s enough to have intrigued me to find out more. I hope to look at how dance and fashion compares side by side, looking at the differences and similarites. Why, from my point of view, is there not more of an overlap. I want to explore both, relative to each other utilising my own knowledge of hip hop culture. I expect to touch upon performance and costume, and my research will look into the history and backgrounds of such. To begin with, I will look at each of the two subjects. Fashion is an extremely large subject with many sub-categories and can mean many different things, however in this essay I will take fashion to mean the popular clothing style. I will put emphasis on looking at high fashion as these are the leaders of their field. Fashion itself though, is not to be confused with clothing. Clothing is a part of fashion, but it is predominantly purely functional, for protection from different aspects of the environment. Fashion however, is primarily for image. It is a way to present individuality and personality. A physical mouldable form of expression. Designers wish to create works of art that can be worn, and this is wear clothing becomes an art form. Dance can also be a ... ... middle of paper ... ...nce_fashion.pdf Julie Bloom (2007) A Synergetic Pas de Deux for Dance and Fashion [Internet] http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/05/arts/dance/05danc.html Fashion Design/Costume Design [Internet] http://talentdevelop.com/fashion.html Mike Ryan (2009) Sherlock Holmes’s Costume Designer on the Case of the Missing Deerstalker Hat [Internet] http://www.vanityfair.com/online/oscars/2009/12/sherlock-holmes-costume-designer-jenny-beavan-on-the-case-of-the-disappearing-deerstalker-hat.html BOOKS Bland, J. (2000) Honey Bee Dance. CSS Publishing Company Turner, V (1969), The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure, Aldine Transaction Schloss, Joseph G. (2009). Foundation: B-boys, B-girls and Hip-Hop Culture in New York. Oxford University Press Thom, P (1992), For an Audience: A Philosophy of the Performing Arts (Arts and Their Philosophies), Temple University Press

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