Mouse Queen Headpiece

In Nutcracker, there is bad Mouse King.  It's usually played by a male dancer with a big mask.  But there   is serious shortage of male dancer....  especially students at studios.  I thought it was such a clever way to make the Mouse King into Mouse Queen.

She was supposed to wear black unitard and a slim black jacket.  More modern costumes.  But she needed headpiece that tell audience that she is "Mouse Queen".  

I never liked ears on a head band.  So I incorporated the ears to an old fashion looking hat.  The hat has comb sewn in, and it also has loop to pin it onto the head securely, so even the mouse queen's choreography was pretty elaborate, it work well.

But she needed Crown for Queen.  However, the crown has to come out from her head when she is defeated.  Moreover, Marie was going to put the crown on her head to exit the stage.  So it has to be somewhat secure on Marie's head.

It sounded impossible at the time.  

I put a comb in the crown and sewn a pocket on the mouse headpiece so it will be secure on the Mouse Queen when she dances.  But it could be easily taken out from the pocket and the comb will catch Marie's hair so she can exit the stage without holding the crown with hands.

Mother Ginger

Usually Mother Ginger is played by a guy and he has huge skirt and kids come out there and dance.  But this studio didn't have that kind of Mother Ginger.  It was a girl's solo and young girls corps.  They wanted to refresh the whole thing.  I noticed that Mother Ginger was not rally the glamorous one comparing to other characters from 2nd act of Nutcracker.  

They wanted to make the costumes more domestic looking.  Like for somebody who likes bake.  The color was decided to contrast with other characters in 2nd act.

So I made it more like a peasant in very cute macaron color.

The color is so youthful and brilliant on the stage.  But we didn't loose the feeling of her liking baking.  She comes out with a cooking tool.  Yet the girls liked it because it was not dull.  

Candy Cane

2nd act of Nutcracker is so much fun!  There are so many variations.  Studio to studio, company to company, they are different.  Candy cane is Russian.  So some companies have the dancers dressed in Russian costumes.  Others have the costumes made to be a candy cane.

I made this costume for a Candy cane dancer.  It's one of my favorite one.  It's very bold, but cute.  It stands out against the young dancers in the back wearing red and white striped unitard like costumes.  The soloist should look dignified.

Arabian

This is a costumes for Arabian in Nutcracker 2nd Act.  The bra top is made with boning and it is very secure on the dancer.  It's not made like a cupped bra, the breasts are held very well in it so the dancer can dance without worrying about an accident.

The pants are cut so the dancer can do split.  It is not too loose on the dancer because this version of Arabian was more acrobatic.  So it needed to be easy to move around.

Later a classical tutu was made to match this top for Le Corsaire.