Self Directed Project

The final term of my second year is upon us...


The previous term Concepts in Context involved me making an extremely specialist costume for an aerialist who will be performing as part of a large ensemble for the official Olympic Opening Ceremony in Weymouth: Battle For the Winds. Although I have handed in the academic part of this project (a large workbook detailing all processes and design decisions etc) I still have not completed the physical costume, so this will be running alongside the first few weeks of SDP and I will need to factor this into my work plan.

So, this brings me back to this term.


Ballet.

I will be learning under the tutelage of a man with a great amount of experience in this area and has worked for the royal Opera House. I was really pleased to find out that over the coming weeks we will be learning some of the following techniques:

Female and male bodice drafting
Female bodice draping and construction
Sleeves
Decoration
Romantic tutu drafting and construction

This is then likely to be followed up in my final year where we will undertake the making of a full classical plate tutu.

SDP is a unit where you choose from a selection of opportunities in an area that you wish to explore further, setting yourself a learning agreement of how you are going to proceed with your work and being strict about your own personal work methods as a practitioner. I am my own driving force for this unit and it will have to be done in a manner that is academically sound, to meet the criteria for assessment.


As I have been driving my work and learning within costume for many years now this is nothing too startling for me. Indeed, I have abandoned my old blog and started afresh. This is a unit to really be honest about the way that I work independently and scrutinise my work methods and ethic in a bid to hopefully improve and therefore improve upon the quality of my work.

When looking at all the options for SDP I considered what I wanted to learn in terms of new knowledge, and knowledge that iImay never again have the opportunity to learn whilst I have access to the vast experience of my tutors.
The ballet unit appealed not only to my love of large classical and fantastically costumed performance but also the chance to learn some really precise and coveted techniques, and yes, the sparkle.
I have a passion to cloth the body, in beautiful shapes, and textures, just like I do with corsetry, and although not strictly historical costuming(my other passion) the classical Ballet's were danced 100 years ago, and the re-interpretation of this is exciting to me- and I want to bring this energy into this unit and see how far I can propel myself  when I am in charge of my own learning withing my degree.




This week I have a learning agreement to write and I need to make a schedule for my work plan.