The original French Manager from Parade at rest 1917 Photo by Lachmann V&A images (The original glass plates for this series of photographs are in the Theatre & Performance Collections of the V&A)
There was something of a party atmosphere in the lecture theatre and RaphaelGallery at the V&A last Friday when ‘Ballets Russes Design Perspectives’ a two-year collaboration between the London College of Fashion and English National Ballet climaxed with the students showing the outfits they had designed taking inspiration from the Ballets Russes. The project culminated with a short ballet for six dancers from ENB choreographed by Stina Quagebeur, a display of the costumes, and screenings of a film about the project. In the Gallery a somewhat odd installation had been set up for the ‘models’ to pose around. This included elements of old ENB productions from their Ballets Russes repertoire: the platform from which the Golden Slave falls in Schéhérazade, the animal carnival masks from the final scene of Petrouchka and an AV rather neatly installed in the Corregidor’s wife’s sedan from Le Tricorne. There were also the remains of ENB’s cubist Managers from Parade – how curious to have two sets of Managers in one museum on one day. Around 800 people attended the final event. For more information go to http://www.ballet.org.uk/current-projects/encounters-and-design-perspectives.html