Costume Collection
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EDT Arstistic Director and Costume Designer Donald LaCourse and Dancer and Costume Designer Renee LaCourse with the 2007 MN Sage Award for Best Costume DesignEDT’s costume collection has been built and maintained since 1974 as a labor of love and passion. We have approximately 5,000 pieces from over 50 different cultures in our collection.
In our form of dance, costuming is more than half the battle. Without our costumes, we would not be an ethnic dance theatre. We like to think that for every person on stage, there are actually two performers: the performer and the costume he or she is wearing. Because we take our costumes so seriously, we have been recognized with the 2007 Best Costume Award for our Beyond the Crescent Moon show.
To our minds, our entire costume collection is award-winning.
When it is possible, we acquire costume pieces in the native countries from which they originate. For example, we have a set of women’s costumes from Northern Bulgaria that were hand made by village women nearly one hundred years ago.
But acquiring pieces in their native countries often is not enough: In this age of the machine, it is easy to mass reproduce embroideries, shirts, belts, etc.; in the process, a lot of specificity regarding exact regional styling and color can be and often is lost. We therefore painstakingly research each costume piece before we either make or purchase any item, all with an eye for the most absolute authenticity possible. Such authenticity is achieved via consultations with native experts and through much research into books and archives. We do not take “artistic liberty” in our interpretation of how costumes should be presented; we do our best to stick as close to native traditions as possible—and this even when we must hand make the costume pieces ourselves.
So please, have a look below, and even better, come see our costumes in action in one of the many opportunities to see us performing each year! Click for our season calendar!
Costumes for our 35th Anniversary Show
The Kaiser's Jubilee:
*Click on images to enlarge!
AUSTRIA
Salzburg Costume
BOSNIA
Sarajevo Costume
CROATIA
Vrlika Costume
CZECHIA (CZECH REPUBLIC)
Sumava Costume
HUNGARY
Sárköz Costume
UKRAINE
Hutsul Costume
POLAND
Nowy Sacz Costume
ROMANIA
Oas Costume
SLOVAKIA
Trencin Costume
SLOVENIA
Gorensko Costume
Concert Facts:
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Coming Soon. . . Factoids for THEN and NOW, EDT's Spring Show 2011
Click to enlarge
May 13-15
Ethnic Dance Theatre presents THEN and NOW, its 37th Annual Spring Concert Series featuring the music and dance of Bosnia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Iran, Norway, Sweden, and Turkey at the Ritz Theater in NE Minneapolis.
One of the most compelling elements of a people's identity is its folk culture. EDT is known for the authenticity it brings to interpreting ethnic music and dance for the stage, and is respected for its work in promoting ethnic music, dance, and costume as art. The first half of the show--THEN--demonstrates our signature performance style at its best.
Folk cultures are constantly evolving, and the manner of presenting folk music, dance and costume on the stage has been undergoing much change around the world in recent years. In some instances, change in the style of presentation has preserved the baby of tradition, while in others, we feel it has not. In the second half of the show--NOW--audiences will experience something of a departure from EDT's traditional style as we present our own contemporary interpretation of ethnic dance, music and costume!
Presentation of THEN and NOW is made possible in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature, the McKnight Foundation, the Target Foundation, and our individual donors.
**If you know something interesting--including your own personal story--about a culture represented in our current season, please tell us about it here!