Body-Draping: Using Costume and Movement as Choreographic Tools in the Creative Process and Choreographic Outcomes

Costuming is an invaluable tool in visual communication and for setting the mood of the story for an audience. This extended essay is about using costumes and movement as choreographic tools in the creative process and performance outcomes. The development is used to deepen and support contemporary movement language through the use of fabric manipulation. For example, this process focuses on how to create movement from fabric, in order to create costuming that connects to the meaning of the movement. The process looks at how costuming brings out the physicality of the dancer’s character. The developments of choreography and movement invention in dance are discussed in this essay as a means of developing an extended movement vocabulary, which is exposed within three case studies in the contemporary choreography and dance dramaturgy curriculum, that are rooted in the African values as a way of deepening the expression of its society.