Peggy! Finally my own ballet programme!

Well, kind of …

I’ve been looking forward to this programme all year. It has just come in from the store and Marsia, Jessie and I unpacked it today. Personally I love a man in a ballet jacket and pair of tights, and this programme is all of that. For me, ballet is all about bling and the men in bling. I pulled out pink velvet jackets with silver bows, green waistcoats with peplums, and cream puff-sleeved shirts to go with them, and got very excited. Most of these costumes are from another era, a time when ballet looked like ballet and, well, people were generally much smaller back then. These days my boys are men and they’re built like men. Think ‘couture for hard yakka’. So when I pulled out beautiful silver brocade (dyed purple) jackets covered with silver trim my eyes lit up and I thought: we’ll get to remake that!

I also get to see these jackets on bodies in a different setting; sometimes over rehearsal clothes, sometimes with jeans.  It can get a little Adam Ant; a little bit glam-punk; a little Gaultier.

The Costume department has just had its first really big clean up in six months. With the two big ballets (The Silver Rose and Coppélia) both up and finally out of the workroom, there has been a short space of time for all the storage shelves to be repacked. There are decades of collected trim (some of the original Coppélia trims and fabrics were still there from 30 years ago, faithfully waiting to be used again) along with the stock of trims we use regularly. The fabric stock room has been reorganised and refiled. That original silver brocade (yet to be dyed purple) has been found and is waiting its turn in the spotlight.

All that’s needed now to recreate these bibs and bobs is a bit of love. Soon the posters for Peggy! go up and … ta-da … my name up in lights!

Peggy! plays in Melbourne 25 June to 5 July

As the Melbourne season of Graeme Murphy’s Nutcracker draws closer, The Australian Ballet’s ‘gentleman’s cutter’, Peggy Moad, walks us through the all-important costume and technical run.

I had my stage debut with Principal Artist Damien Welch today. The response from our fearless leader and Artistic Director David McAlister was, “Fabulous darling, what’s your availability?” Of course it was just the costume and technical run for Graeme Murphy’s Nutcracker Act II, and I was just testing the royal box wheel with the backstage crew, seeing how it worked with people inside. That’s what you get when you go on stage just to check a costume.

It’s bump-in week for the touring staff and dancers and it’s a big week – for me it’s just over 60 hours and I’m a lightweight. Act II has a lot of quick changes for the dancers and the best way to check for any potential wardrobe malfunctions is to stand backstage and get feedback from the dressers and dancers right before and after those quick changes happen. Things can also seem to fit a little differently in the translation from fitting room to the stage.

Another big part of tech week is the costume fittings for the extras, including child extras. With 16 boys to fit into three costumes each, as well as half a dozen adult extras just for the men’s department, it’s quite a scheduling dance to make sure it all happens and that all the alterations are completed. Not to mention the odd bit of soft props, just to mix it up a bit

All in all just another week in the office really. Better go start sorting The Sleeping Beauty costumes.

Graeme Murphy’s Nutcracker – The Story of Clara opens in Melbourne this Friday 5 June

Photography Branco Gaica