An exploration of the application of the laboratoire.

I wrote this paper to challenge the way costume design is taught and debated. Conventional design teaching aligns itself – often for practical reasons - to the text-based, director led theatre - favouring a Stanislavsky based approach to physical theatre/movement based creative development. This can result in a responsive rather than a proactive practice, or an illustrative approach to design.

The paper examined the Laboratoire d'Étude du Mouvement (LEM) pedagogy and its application to the teaching and practice of costume design. It also referred to the co-production, between London College of Fashion and DAMU (Theatre Faculty, Academy of Performing Arts, Prague), of a costume–based performance in Prague in April 2006, which created a common language via the exploration of the dynamics of the costumed body in movement.

It analysed how the visual dialogue about the body as a dynamic sculptural expressive form in movement – and the idea of the costumed, scenic body as a universal communicator – can support the creation of work that, in turn, suggests and creates movement, thus essentially ‘writing’ the physical performance text. It suggests that, liberated from a purely illustrative raison d’être the costumed body can, given the appropriate collaborative environment, write the story.

Donatella Barbieri's research interests include Costume; Scenography; and Costume design for performance.