The Aerial Alchemist

Episode 37: Costuming for Aerialists, Part 2: The Professional Layer

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0:00 | 21:04

Intro & Announcements

4:40 — Essential items for performers

8:40 — Maintaining costumes and personal hygiene

12:42 — Footwear & presentation tips

16:28 — Final checks and confidence before performance

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SPEAKER_00

Welcome to The Aerial Alchemist, where movement transforms into magic and stories take flight. I'm Fallon, dancer, aerialist, and storyteller, inviting you into a world where circus and dance meet creativity, resilience, and community. Whether you're here to be inspired, to learn, or to simply dream a little bigger, you found your place. I'm glad you're here. Today we're talking about costuming again and less about what we do to make sure that our costume works and more to make sure that we work when we show up, what we have on our kit and how we show up looking professional and prepared. Before we jump in, I don't really have any announcements because we are 10 days away from flourish at this point. So I I feel like my American friends, I mean, if you can make it happen in 10 days, let's fucking go. I'm ready. Uh and European friends, I think that's easier for you. Like, also let's do it. But I also know that 10 days is not a lot of time by the time you're hearing this. I'm actually recording this, it's Memorial Day. And uh, for those of you on the Patreon, you may have just seen a hummingbird behind me. I am actually up at our cabin, up uh outside of Fort Collins in the mountains. I can see Wyoming from here, literally, which is pretty crazy from the deck. And I have positioned myself so that if you're watching the video on Patreon, there's a little hummingbird feeder behind me. I have a couple, and these guys, I guess it's the time of year, they are crazy this weekend. We have several flitting about and fighting each other and chasing each other. Oh, here's one. I don't know if you'll the microphone will pick it up, but I love them. But I've been becoming a birder, inspired by my lovely friend Christine, and these are broadtailed hummingbirds. And here's a fun fact that has nothing to do with anything other than birds. But I learned that there's, you know, several kinds of different hummingbirds, and these are broadtailed hummingbirds, but there's also ruby-throated hummingbirds. And I was like, well, those look the same to me. And and true, they do look very similar. Both of them have red on their throats and green on their backs, and they're very beautiful. And what I learned is that in in my neck of the woods, we have the broad tailed hummingbirds, and they uh make that little like trill sound when they're flying, and you can hear their wings beat when they're flying. So you hear them like kind of buzzing and like like trilling, and they're so cute. And the ruby-throated ones are silent when they fly, which is wild to me because I also learned that and I feel like I knew this at one point, but whatever, that a hummingbird's wings beat between 50 and 80 times per second. I'll let you think about that for a minute, because that was wild to me. There's another one right in front of me. And up to 200 times during their like mating dives or courtship dives. There's another one behind me. You're welcome. I'm telling you, they're all over the place. But that's wild to me. Also, they do not flap their wings, they move in figure eight patterns, and that's how they move like little helicopters, which I think is very cool. So, anyways, I'm sure that's exactly why you listened to this episode, but you're welcome for a fun fact that I learned this weekend, uh, because I enjoy them very much. I enjoy fun facts, and uh I love nerding out with anybody who just wants to learn cool things that you never really need to know. So, yes, anyways, I'm up here enjoying the nature, having a little brief retreat before we get into a few weeks of craziness before flourish happens. So I'm batch recording the things and I thought it's a beautiful day. I'm gonna get outside and record this podcast, and hopefully I don't have to record it twice. Hopefully the internet is good enough that this will work. So, yeah, let's let's hop right in today, shall we? So, funny story. I went to record this podcast today, and I was like, okay, we're on episode number 36, and we're gonna start talking about costuming. Forgetting that I actually already recorded the first part. So I'm catching back up myself, and you could all link last week in the show notes, or just go back one week. It's all that hard, but I will link it for you. If you want to catch up on what I make sure that I do when I am preparing a costume for a show, all of this has been spurred by having a real life costumer come into my life for Bite, uh, which is the October show, which I'm very excited about, pushing me as an artist, making me think in our costumes as a way to continue to tell the story, which I have always thought about, but not had the luxury of someone who could make things in a way that allowed me to really dive deep. It's like I I've always been able to do it in a small way. Um, bigger ways when it is a solo piece and just me, that feels slightly different. But, you know, sometimes the resources have to go to other things. And a lot of times when you're aerialist, they have to go to keeping you safe. So, anyways, that being said, this week we're talking about what to bring with you once you show up to the show or the gig that you are working. So this is definitely geared towards performers and not directors and producers. I try to bring extras of everything, uh, but it is your your responsibility as a performer to make sure that you've got all of the other pieces. And it's always nice because sometimes, you know, your director or producer may forget something because we're human too. So the first thing that I can say is backup options for everything that can fail. This is your tights, especially your nude tights, have a have a backup option. Oh my word. I've always have several of them. And the amount of times that people have asked me for a pair because they've got a run or a rip in theirs. So I do have my practice ones, and then I have my performance ones, and then I always have uh two performance ones with me on that day, and usually my practice ones, because what you can do in a pinch is if you've got two ruined ones, you can wear them both together, and usually you can't tell where the rip is. So there's another little hack for you in a in a pinch. It's not for me, it's not the most ideal. I don't love wearing that many layers typically, but it is an option. If you've got any like closures on your costume at all, like button, snaps, things like that, or like little the little hook and eyes, having a spare set of those and anything else that you think might need it that that could fall off depending on your on your costume. You must have a sewing kit in your in your kit, in your in your pack that has needle threads in various colors, um pair of small scissors, safety pins, that sort of thing. And I suggest just scissors in general, maybe not even just those teeny scissors, but I don't know why you can never find a pair of scissors when you go to places, and yet you always need them. I always have a pair of scissors with me now. So, uh because there's just been so many times you just need a pair of good scissors that cut things. Another thing for your pack, last week we're I don't know if we got into this with costuming, but a lot of costumes can't be washed several times or sometimes not at all, as I've learned recently. Uh make sure you check that when you buy costumes. I bought a pair of um some shorts with fringe on them for the hidden soiree. And I was like, cool, I bet these you just throw them in with the delicates, give them a little wash. Because they're after, like, you know, a few show runs and rehearsals, like they're they're nasty. So I washed things after the full show run. And I washed them and they came out and the fringe was not looking lovely. And then I looked at the the tag afterwards and it said, do not wash. And I thought, why are we making costumes that we cannot wash? But there's so many of them, especially ones that were like little shorts. Come on, come on, those need to be able to be washed. But during this show run, when you don't have time to take things home and wash them and have them dry for the next show and they start getting stinky, because I'm gonna tell you that that like anxious show performance sweat taste or taste. I don't taste it. It smells different and it smells especially ripe than just regular sweat. Ask any performer, it's wild. Uh so I don't know what the science is behind that. If someone knows, please tell me. I love fun facts. But to fix that, vodka water. So just get like a little spray bottle, and I don't, it's not science, y'all. Like I think I do like half and half-ish of like cheap vodka and water, and then you spritz it like Febrize. You can use Fabriz too, but I do find that the vodka water works better um than the Febrize. And then what I do, bonus, not necessary. The vodka, like what it does is it kills the bacteria so it stops stinking. And then I also make rose water, lavender water, whatever, flour water, and then I spray that on top just for a nice little scent. And it's mild, it usually I haven't had anybody complain about allergies and whatnot because it's just rose water. So check with your friends, make sure we're not we're not making people break out in hives. We don't like that. That is uh something that's really nice to have in the bag. I ha now have that in my little kit so that everybody can use it. Uh the other thing that I love to have in my bag, especially for gigs, but shows too, always baby wipes for your feet specifically. Like it's it's such a distraction for me when I'm like watching this beautiful aerialist and their feet are black. And look, there's no judgment. I know we're walking around in our bare feet trying to get to places, but yeah, wipe those feet off. If you're aerial bartending, oh my gosh, because your feet are like in people's faces and you're pouring them drinks, please, please wipe off your feet or have shoes, which I'll get to. But yeah, it's just that's that's my thing. That's my thing. It just helps keep that presentation. You look more professional. I know we got to be in bare feet. And then footwear. So a lot of times we're just barefooted, which is totally fine. If you're doing a uh corporate gig and you have to get from wherever your green room is to where your apparatus is, and sometimes that can be a trek. Uh, it's great to have some sort of shoes that you can wear. I like like jazz shoes and you can get those in nude. Some people will perform in them for gigs, and I think that's great, especially for bartending, to have something covered, like covered on your feet. But yeah, those like little jazz slippers or ballet slippers or something like that are great. I don't love like flip-flops because it just kind of takes away from like the whole aesthetic. Now that totally depends on what type of gig you're you're doing. There may be, there's clearly a time and a place for them. Clearly a time, always. But just think about like how it looks as a whole, especially people are paying you like several hundred thousand dollars to do this, like, you know, looks apart. You know what I'm saying? Um, yeah. And then with I I'm gonna try to find this. Rachel posted this not terribly long, but long ago. But when it comes to fishnets, if you're gonna wear like nude fishnets, which can be really nice for a lot of aerial work, the you first of all, get good fishnets. Get the dancer like fishnets the that you can get from dance companies, not the like ones that cost like $2 from Walmart. Don't don't do that. Get the good ones. Um, they'll hold up better. Um, you'll spend less money in the long run. But they come with like uh uh it's not f it's not fishnet on the bottom of your foot. It's full fabric on the bottom of your foot. And that's fine if your foot is in a shoe. It doesn't look great if you're doing aerial. So I'll try to find it, but I will find it because I I sent it to Christine because she used this for the Soiree. Um, but there's a really lovely way that Rachel does, except for she does it while it's on her foot, and I don't understand how she does not stab herself in the foot because I would. But yeah, there's a technique to cut it out and not ruin the tight, and then also make it look really nice like a stirrup and like really form to your feet. So I'll link that in the show notes so you can you can do that. Just little, just little tidbits that we pick up along the way, and it's nice to share with people as we start getting into work. Another thing to have is fashion tape or skin safe adhesive, like what is it? Wig tape, wig glue, wig glue, yeah. Toupe, toupee tape, that's what it is. Same thing, real sticky. I've gotten a lot of these tips too from like burlesque performers. They know lots of things. Ask them questions about costumes because they have to have costumes that can stay on and come off at specific times when they want them to. So it's really they'll know everything. Like this is what to use if you want it to come off. This is what you use if you don't want it to come off. It's great. Make sure you have like your your rosin, any sticky stuff or rosin remover. Rosin, like spray rosin in a pinch can be used for hairspray, and hairspray in a pinch can be used for rosin, just so you know. They're both sticky. They can they can work with when you need it. And then we're not really talking about makeup this week, but we will later. But just quicks for for makeups. Like I like to make sure that I have a mirror. We end up in wild green rooms. Now, this is different if you're in like a theatrical show. Usually there's enough mirrors, but it's good to find out because sometimes there's not. But usually your director will will make sure that that's taken care of. Um, but on gigs, man, there's never, there's never good mirror. So I have two like portable lighted mirrors that I really like that just go in my bag. And usually I'm lending one to someone else because they don't have one. But that is such a a good one to have with you. And then any of your makeup essentials with you. Like if you do your makeup at home, then uh, and then what I'm just bringing is like lash glue if I'm wearing lashes and my lipstick for sure, and then maybe a little concealer or powder or something, like if my foundation, like if that starts getting messed up, but just kind of quick touch-up type things in my bag. And then if you have like a really nice costume, like depending on what you're wearing, a garment bag for transport, if you think it's something that's gonna wrinkle and not stretch out. Sometimes we're just wearing leotards and that can straight up go in a bag because as soon as you put it on, it doesn't look wrinkled because it's stretch. But if it's something that has uh like flowy mesh skirt on it, make sure that that is steamed and looking nice. And if you don't have a garment back or a way to transport it nicely, then bring a little uh portable steamer with you so that you can make it looking polished. And then when you get to the gig, I love a cover-up and I'm honestly still trying to find one that I like. Ooh, I just realized what it was because I saw it on the TikTok. I'm gonna link it. It's kind of like this caftan thing, like it's a dress that could cover your your costume if you're needing to be in the crowd at a corporate gig and you can wear over it. Because, you know, it's not great unless it's a type of gig where you it is like you're doing ambient work throughout and you're like a roaming performer that's different. But if you're just I I've been at ones where like they're like, oh, enjoy the party until it's your turn to like perform or whatever, or after the party, like it's nice to have something else to wear over your costume. And then in the theater, I love cozy stuff that I can just easily throw on over my undergarment garments. So I'm usually always wearing my tights because once those are on, like, it's just a pain to go on and off. But yeah, my undergarments are on, and then I have warm things, lots of layers, like lots of options for layers uh to cover up with because it can get cold in theaters. But then also you're on stage and then you're getting hot. So layers. And that's good for between acts too, like if you're getting cold so that you're staying warm in between acts, like during an intermission. It's great for you to know what you're changing spaces before you're arrive. Don't just assume that they'll provide a dressing room because they won't remember that for you. They just think you can show up and just be there. So you may get stuck in like a public bathroom, which sucks. So if you're the one coordinating the gig, make sure that there's a place for you to go to change and to warm up and to do what you need to do in that space that's away from the guests. And a lot of times those are not, those are not these glamorous, luxurious rooms. They are just not. So be aware of that. Something that I have purchased that has been very, very helpful is a pop-up tent. And like there's literally room for you to stand and change in it. And I love it for weird gigs where like you're miles away from the closest place to change and you need to change for whatever reason. You just pop that up and you can change right in front of everybody and not in front of anybody at all. And uh also really great for photo shoots on the outdoors. So, because I have changed clothes outside with people covering me up with things, and this is a game changer's and it pops down to like I don't know, it's like a foot, like a hula hoop. It like bends up and folds in on itself, and it's really nice. I'll again I'll link that in the show notes so you can see what the heck I'm talking about and get one if you want. Now, I will say, beware of wasps getting in there because they will sting you in the butt, like they did my friend Emily at a gig, and we just heard her scream, it was awful. And she was in there and got stung by a wasp because it had like made its way in and then got pissed at her when it bumped when she bumped up against it. So, anyways, be aware of that if you get one of these little dressing pods. And then this isn't really about the costume itself, but it is about the performance. So if you're at a corporate gig, think about your entrance to your apparatus. What does that we're not like schlumped over? So, how are you carrying yourself? What are you wearing if it is your costume? Like when you get there, you're you are, you know, aerialist circus performer, entertainer, extraordinaire, and you should look like it. Even if you're faking it till you make it, even if it's your first gig and you're terrified, you are faking it till you make it, and that will read to the whole room. So own own your power in that. I think that there's a lot of imposter syndrome. We get really inside of our heads, but but yeah, own that room because you can. You're doing things that no one else in that room can do. Most people can't even think about getting on an apparatus and you're gonna do all these cool things on it for them. So so yeah, think about that before you even like touch, touch your apparatus. And the last thing before you get out into the crowd is just a final mirror check in all four directions. Like look look at yourself in all the in all the ways and make sure that you know your leotard hasn't split down the back like mine did that one time or anything else. It's not it's not vanity, it's just a systems check. You can have a friend check your teeth for you, make sure you don't got any any food, any broccoli left over in there um before you're out talking to a crowd and work in a crowd. So yeah. It'll make you f feel more confident so that you can go out and own that room because you've got it. Because I know you do. Whoa, the hummingbird went right by my head. That being said, I think that's all I have for you today. If you have questions about anything, want me to dive deeper in anything, I'm happy to. I will at some point make a list of everything that's in my low shit kit and in my bag and and everything that I bring to gigs and shows that has been very helpful for me. And I keep, I keep gathering stuff. So if there's something that I didn't say that you would love to share with me because it's helped you, please, please do pop it in the comments or send me a DM. I'd love to know uh what you put in your kits and make sure that you have gigs because you we learn these things by messing it up, honestly. We learn it by getting it wrong. And so many of the things that I've gotten wrong, I've then shared with other people, and then vice versa. There's things that I haven't gotten wrong because people gave me the information ahead of time because they got it wrong. So yeah, we're all just out here helping each other out. It's a good time. If you have requests for future episodes, please pop them in the comments, shoot me a DM. You can reach me on all the social medias at in the wings Ariel or on Patreon at in the wings Ariel. I would love, love to hear from you. And speaking of Patreon, thank you to my patrons for supporting this podcast, supporting me and all of my work. I could not do it without you. I am appreciative for you every single day, and I feel like there's no way for me to actually express how much it means to me. But I really do appreciate you. I hope you have a beautiful week, and I will see you next week. This has been the Ariel Alchemist. Now go create some magic of your own. Happy flying.