I have always endeavored to link my passions of costume and international travel, such as researching for my book on Beijing opera costumes in China and Taiwan. Now retired, I have been searching for innovative ways to combine these two activities, with my added desire to empower women of the world. I have fundamental sewing and patterning skills I can teach that would enable women in other countries to support their families. I now have connected with two agencies, a school in Kenya and a textile co-op in Laos and plan to volunteer with them when travel allows.

by Professor Emerita Alexandra Bonds

​(USA)

This presentation features work on the costume design for Silk - dramatization. I shared my experience in a laboratory style of creating a performance through improvisation and experimentation with movement, text, sound, and costumes. The script, the directorial themes and choices, the design aspects emerged almost simultaneously. Through a series of workshops, the cast and the director improvised around the costumes to create performative content and structure. Pictures of the show available here.

by Marina Raytchinova

(Bulgaria)

Lilibeth Cuenca always envied the abilities of the octopus, especially its tentacles. In the living sculpture and performance Octopada, she impersonates the features of the octopus. Her idea and performance, made me create an that can change colour by copying the colour of what it points at. It has 8 tentacles: 6 arms and 2 feet. When, avoiding the enemy, the octopus camouflages itself in its environment by imitating colours, patterns and shapes, it can detach a tentacle or even start devouring itself, if it has to escape from danger. The video text contributes a lot of innovative subjects, such as health, sustainability, global politics etc.

by Lise Klitten

(Denmark)

One starting point led to two different performances in two cities: Prague and Oslo. Using the same pair of costumes with different performers, I first created the performance Lavka in Prague in 2019 as part of my PhD research on "Extreme Costume." Two years later, I transferred the costumes to Oslo, where I worked in the Costume Agency workshop (Critical Costume 2020) to recreate the performance from scratch. This experience raised questions: How similar was the process, and how did it differ? Would a new performer in the same costume respond in the same way? Working with non-traditional costumes depends on material, size, and weight. How do the performer's character and the director's requirements influence the costume? This presentation explores live performance and non-traditional materials in authorial theatre, where costume becomes an autonomous, central element in the production.

by Jitka Pospísilová

(Czech Republic)