Justin Peck decided he wanted to create a dance to compositions from Dan Deacon’s 2012 album, America, back when Donald Trump’s run for president seemed little more than grist for the comedy of late-night TV hosts. And the resident choreographer of the New York City Ballet had roped in Opening Ceremony’s Humberto Leon to create the costumes well before Election Day. But as Leon explained yesterday evening, after a performance of Peck’s The Times Are Racing, the crucial creative meeting between the collaborators happened to be scheduled for November 10, 2016—which served to give a different valence to the piece.
“Dan’s album was about traveling across America, and the tensions he experienced, as far as what ‘America’ is, or is meant to be,” Leon noted. “So we were already exploring that theme, through the music. But after the election, that theme got heightened. There was more of a sense of urgency, a need to speak out.”
Last night’s performance of The Times Are Racing also served as Opening Ceremony’s Spring 2017 fashion show. And as far as timeliness goes, Peck’s luck held: As people around the country crowded at airports, protesting President Trump’s executive order putting a temporary halt to entry to the United States by all refugees as well as citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries, the curtain rose at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center, revealing dancers clad in T-shirts that yelled “DEFY” and “RESIST” and clothes with prints based on illustrations from a book of fairy tales given to children at Ellis Island. The prints (and embroideries) were hard to see from the stage, but what came through clearly was the idiomatic American-ness of the clothes, which emphasized denim and sweats and tees and overalls.
According to Leon, the Spring 2017 collection informed the ballet’s costumes, and the ballet informed the collection right back. Peck wanted to convey the experience of city street life, the dazzling array of individuals one encounters daily just walking around New York. And so, for the most part, the clothes from the collection that Leon used in his costumes were relatively matter of fact. But there were a few unexpected touches, like the fluid outerwear that whipped along with the dancers as they spun and ran and leapt, and the handkerchief-hem dresses and skirts endowed with a similar sense of movement. Leon brought some of that movement back to the offstage collection, as well: He and partner Carol Lim embellished numerous pieces with tassels while window-like openings in the clothes provided space for bodies to shape-shift. Another influence, from the dance, was the collection’s overarching sense of androgyny, a nod to Peck’s choice to choreograph parts in The Times Are Racing that could be danced by either a woman or a man.
“I see this performance as kind of a mini-protest,” Lim said, after the final bow. “The energy that drives it is a hard energy, but ultimately, when you go out and take a stand, and see all these other people taking a stand alongside you, you feel uplifted. That’s what we wanted for the collection, too—that feeling, like, yeah, this is who we are!”
