Credo: Choreography by Matthew Neenan for Ballet X
We brought costume designer Reid Bartelme back to the studio, nearly a year after our first interview with him, to delve further into his design process and his vast knowledge of the dance landscape at large. In the meantime to our 2015 interview, the New York Times published an article about Reid highlighting his ability to bring together often-disparate factions of the dance world. We addressed the themes of that article, including the best strategies for learning and educating across worlds, the stigmas that sometimes get attached to one dance world by another, and how the terms “downtown” and “uptown” come into play. (Check out Danspace Project!) As usual, Reid was a lively conversationalist and a complete pleasure to engage. Here are few photos of costumes by Reid & Harriet that came up in the course of conversation, including the notorious “S&M bunny” ears for Trey McIntyre’s Ballet X.
Reid Bartelme is a freelance fashion and costume designer who lives and works in New York. Prior to designing he spent many years dancing for companies throughout North America, including Pacific Northwest Ballet, BalletMet Columbus, Alberta Ballet, Shen Wei and Lar Lubovitch. He has designed costumes for many dance luminaries including Pam Tanowitz, Michelle Boule, Trey McIntyre, Kyle Abraham and Christopher Wheeldon, Matthew Neenan. Reid Bartelme and Harriet Jung founded Reid & harriet Design in the Fall of 2011. They were classmates in the fashion design program at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Collaboratively, they have designed costumes for Justin Peck, Marcelo Gomes, Andrea Miller, Emery Lecrone, Kyle Abraham, Mauro Bigonzetti, and Doug Varone. They have costumed productions at American Ballet Theater, New York City Ballet and Ballet Next and have produced clothes for commissioned works at Fall for Dance, the Youth America Grand Prix, and Dancers Responding to Aids. Along with Justin Peck, they are featured in the documentary Ballet 422 which premiered at the 2014 TriBeCa Film Festival.
Pod De Deux 