Design Statement

It Festers, It Grows (2026), was a student choreographed dance piece that was part of the UCSB Spring Dance Concert: UMBRA line up. The project is entirely student designed and worked on over the span of 3 months. The concept of IFIG was based on the way anxiety can fester within a person, and as it grows it can lead to compulsive disorders. The costumes and lighting were heavily inspired by mold and fungus, that builds both on the dancers and the world around them. 

The goal was to achieve asymmetrical looks with individuality, but keep some form of uniformity. I used multitudes of layers to create this feeling of suffocation and to make it so that the mold is growing on each dancer. In order to keep them in sort of controlled chaos I kept the color palette consistent, used similar base silhouettes, and reused several pieces of clothing for different performers. For example, if one dancer had a sleeve removed, said sleeve would be given to another dancer for their costume. In this project I had learned how to dye, distress, and adapt when obstacles came up.