Midway through the first act of the Star Dance Companyās Holiday Spectacular dance show, itāll be difficult to miss the flashy flair emanating from the āHang Your Lightsā tap routine. What you wonāt see is a critical component behind those effects.
Two first-year students ā Dance Management major Morgan Riley and Entertainment Business major Lorna Waggoner ā are the two behind-the-scenes costume operators assigned to the number that features nine tuxedoed dancers. Their costumes illuminate in the traditional Christmas colors of green and red, thanks to an innovative creation by costume designer and Ann Lacy School of American Dance and Entertainment professor Jessica Telfer.
The costumes are lined with LED fiber optic mesh fabric controlled through a smartphone app via Bluetooth. The dancers are split into two groups so they can display alternate colors, thus the two operators.
Riley said the two started practicing their contribution to the performance with music only, then became more familiar with the routine through repetitive viewings of rehearsal video. They coordinated and practiced with each other several times before working directly with the dancers.
Although the app allows for multiple colors and effects, the āHang Your Lightsā routine primarily switches the lights on and off with some color changes alternating between red and green. The hats and pants of each costume are lit red throughout the number, connected to each other with an electrical wire. The vests are independently managed and change colors according to the choreography. The costumes have rechargeable battery packs concealed in interior pockets with just enough juice for one show.
During the performance, the costume operators stand slightly out of view of the audience but close enough to maintain Bluetooth range. Due to the novel nature of the costumes, they said the costume choreography has been a fun new learning experience.
Costume designer Telfer was recently selected to present at the International Conference on Visual and Performing Arts next summer in Greece on the topic āLight, Technology, and Kinetics in Costume Design.ā Her idea for the new costumes was inspired by the āHang Your Lightsā song.
āIāve been wanting to work with fiberoptic fabric for several years and just needed a number that suited that idea,ā Telfer said. āShadoe Brandt (a fellow dance professor and the choreographer of the selection) told me he has always wanted to choreograph a tap number in the dark so the audience can only hear the music and syncopation of the tappers. āHang Your Lightsā was the perfect piece to allow both of us to experiment with these ideas.ā
