Dressed and impressed: a selection of well-known professional dancers from different genres and eras recall the costumes they liked best and what made them great - ballet United States

Dance Magazine, Oct, 2002 by Heather Wisner

PHYLLIS LAMHUT (former Alwin Nikolais and Murray Louis dancer, artistic director of the Phyllis Lamhut Dance Company): Hearts of Palm. The Phyllis Lamhut Dance Company. Choreography: Phyllis Lamhut. Costumes: antique store and Ted Ulmer

Nikolais mostly used appliqued tights or painted tights--we used to stand there while [artist] George Constant painted them. When artists make the costumes, they look great on paper, but they don't always translate to the body. When I started my own company, I swore I would never wear tights. I spent a lot of money on costumes, although a lot of modern dancers don't.

For Hearts of Palm (1976), I found a Ginger Rogers type of dress in an antique shop. It was silk chiffon and had a skirt with 360-degree pleats. There were sequins and rhinestones on the bodice, and it had a V-neck and a very low back. I designed the piece around the dress--it was a spoof of elegant hotel lobby life--then had Ted Ulmer make ten more gowns. The femme in me was saying "Oh, finally--a big skirt with pleats"--maybe I had reverted back to childhood. It made me feel wonderful, sort of nude, and I had big silver dancing shoes.

FREDERIC FRANKLIN (former principal dancer, the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo): The Baron, Gaite Parisienne. The Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. Choreography: Leonide Massine. Costumes: Comte Etienne de Beaumont

When I joined the Ballet Russe in 1938, the first thing Massine did was Gaite Parisienne. I went to rehearsal and learned all the parts ... because he was testing me. We had what was called a show rehearsal, where people came to watch, and afterward, Massine asked me what part I wanted to do. I told him "Whatever you think I should do," and he said, "All right: The Baron." Massine explained that I was to be a young Austrian officer entering a nightclub for the first time, with dancing ladies and can-can girls.

The costume was a very nice military top, green material with a frog or braid across the front, black wool tights with a red decoration on the side, and nice character shoes. It was a lovely, easy costume. It was not quite the same in the film--it wasn't elaborate enough for Warner Brothers. [Warner Brothers filmed the ballet in 1941, as The Gay Parisian.] I wore it countless times--practically every night between 1938 and 1958. It had to be replaced several times, because it became so worn out with perspiration. It was my first performance with the Ballet Russe--other people did the role, but I became associated with it, and when Danilova started dancing it [the role of the Glove-Seller], it was the beginning of a long partnership.

LINDA-DENISE FISHER-HARRELL (dancer, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater): Cry. Alvin Alley American Dance Theater. Choreographer: Alvin Alley. Costumes: Alvin Ailey

You have to put on the costume when you're learning and rehearsing the piece, because it has so much material, so many panels. I love the way it moves, the way it feels--I feel very comfortable and very confident. The top is a form-fitting cotton leotard, and it's white, which we dancers all hate, because it can make us look like the Sta-Puft Marshmallow Man. But it has long sleeves and is cut low in the back, and the skirt is floor length, with a gusset sewn into it so it doesn't hula-hoop around. Any woman would look elegant in it. Also, the legs are bare; I hate, and have always hated, tights because they feel constricting, but here you can really feel the floor.

It's not a fancy costume, but it helps me do what I have to do. I have to pour so much of myself into it. The character goes through so much--joy, agitation, grief, and the charisma and elegance that go along with that--that the costume is more of a frame to the portrait. It's not too busy--it doesn't distract from the dance. Judy [Judith Jamison, who originated the role] has made it an icon, which is part of the pressure in doing it. When you're first learning it, it's intimidating, but later you say "Where's my skirt?" It's very heavy and it affects how you dance, but it does its own shading. It's beautiful.

MIREILLE HASSENBOEHLER (principal dancer, Houston Ballet): Cleopatra, Cleopatra. Houston Ballet. Choreographer: Ben Stevenson. Costumes: Judanna Lynn

I love the whole pageantry of Cleopatra. When I went to the costume fitting I was like, "Wow! This is fun!" I was like a kid in a candy store. There are six costume changes, with different headpieces for each, and they're all amazing, just beautiful. You get to wear bare legs, too, which is freeing. Some of the headpieces are a little restricting for pirouettes--there are braids which are a bit heavy on your head, and a band around your head with a serpent at the end. Some of the changes are quick, but you have so much help with your costume changes, it's like having handmaidens helping you; it puts you in the frame of mind of the character.

The first costume is a white Romanesque dress--just a drape, really--which you take off immediately to get into the bath. When you get out, there's a green dress with pleats all the way around, a corset on top of that, and all the jewelry. After she's exiled, she gets smuggled back into Egypt in a rug; we call this one the rug dress--it's rust and gold colored, with a bare midriff. When she enters Rome she wears a red dress with pearl nipples and hieroglyphics on the headgear--this costume makes me feel like I'm in Carnaval. The last dress is a white bodice and chiffon skirt with a hieroglyphic design on it.