Chapter Four: Your First Costume

The question of theatrical nudity has been implicit in previous chapters; Shusterman’s costume aestheticized his naked silhouette, and Cunningham briefly exposed swathes of naked skin during his Walkaround Time costume change. This chapter considers the relationship between theatrical nudity and costuming, as well as the way nudity itself can be a form of costuming. It begins with an analysis of a Butoh solo and goes on to consider the way the bi-chromatic unitard designs used in Cunningham’s Beach Birds and Ohad Naharin’s Virus facilitated bodily segmentation and the play of somatic foreground and background. Along with a personal costume experiment, these points support the conclusion that dance technique creates a costume which may be layered with clothing, or not.