Akris Is Dressing Dancers for John Neumeier’s Last Ballet

LET’S DANCE: Some designers can’t resist stiff fabrics. Albert Kriemler can, adamant that people must be able to move freely in clothes — ballet dancers included.

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The Akris designer has collaborated with choreographer John Neumeier on six projects since 2005, and insists on not calling his designs for the stage “costumes.”

His latest commission is a special one: The world premiere on June 30 of “Epilogue,” Neumeier’s swan song after 51 years as artistic director and chief choreographer of the Hamburg Ballet.

“For me, it remains fascinating to design modern clothes for dancers with the utmost functionality to move,” Kriemler said.

Neumeier said he was attracted by Kriemler’s “fusion of architectural structures with limitless mobility.”

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What’s more, his “humanizing” of the theatrical wardrobe by resisting the descriptor of costumes “concurs exactly with my own desire not to see ‘dancers’ on stage, but rather people who happen to be dancing.”

“Epilogue” is billed as a “rather abstract ballet of quiet tones and subtle movements that leaves room for personal associations.” It features the music of Franz Schubert, Richard Strauss and Simon & Garfunkel and marks Neumeier’s 173rd work.

Kriemler said he took cues from the score, translating the euphoria in Strauss’ “Spring” with an asymmetric red dress, and fluid butter-yellow crepe georgette pants, for example.

“Even if ballet is a classical art, it is contemporary, and fashion emphasizes that. It brings ballet into the present,” he said.

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