Claudia Schreier’s world premiere The Rite of Spring pushes the boundaries of creativity, where each aspect brings a truly unique take on the historic ballet. Audiences can look forward to Schreier's inspired choreography brought to life when Maestro Jonathan McPhee conducts his internationally acclaimed arrangement of Stravinsky’s iconic score with the Atlanta Ballet Orchestra.

Even the costumes reflect the raw and emotional nature of the piece, a testament to the dedication of costume designer Abigail Dupree-Polston and the Atlanta Ballet Costume Shop. The Rite of Spring marks yet another collaboration between Dupree-Polston and Schreier, the previous being Nighthawks, a highlight from Atlanta Ballet’s 23 | 24 Season.

Atlanta Ballet was thrilled to secure an exclusive interview with Dupree-Polston to unearth the unique process of costuming The Rite of Spring, including a collaboration with the Atlanta Botanical Garden and navigating the unexpected challenge of an almost lost fabric shipment.

While Dupree-Polston's recognizable style is typically characterized by clean lines and sleek shapes, she shared that she had expanded her approach for The Rite of Spring. By incorporating a wider range of textures and silhouettes, the cut of the billowing garments is sheer and form-altering, creating dynamic shapes on the dancers.

Can you describe your approach to costuming The Rite of Spring? What were your primary inspirations, and how did conversations with Schreier and your own past work influence your design choices?

We knew very early in the process that we wanted to reflect nature, and the concept evolved into a depiction of the consequences of deviation from harmony with nature, stripping it of its resources. In the beginning of the ballet we have ancient people who live in harmony with nature. In the second “act”, we wanted to show a dead and dehydrated land, where the people were living with the consequences of plundering their surroundings. We go from these flowing, fluttering garments, to bony, somewhat skeletal textures.

How did the collaboration with the Atlanta Botanical Garden come about? Were there any unexpected discoveries or insights that emerged during your interactions with the staff when collecting the plants?

Early on in the concepting process, costume manager, Colleen McGonegle, and I had discussed the potential for using plants to eco-print. It seemed like a great way to bring actual nature into the first act costumes. McGonegle had the idea to reach out to the Atlanta Botanical Garden, and we were fortunate in our timing - they had just begun their fall trimming process and offered to let us take some of these clippings. Additionally, my neighbor is the owner and florist of Lunaria Events, and she donated a lot of foliage that made it into the final prints.

Please describe the process of transferring the plant patterns onto the fabric. How long did it take to achieve the desired results?

We started out by cutting the silk chiffon into blocks just a bit larger than each piece of each garment. McGonegle then scoured those to remove any impurities in the fabric. She laid each piece of fabric flat, carefully placed the plants, and then covered them with an iron blanket (a piece of cotton fabric that has been soaked in iron-saturated water). She rolled up those layers, tied the roll into a bundle with twine, steamed it in our dye vat for a bit, and then set it out on a rack to dry for two days. Finally, she unrolled it, removed the plants, and washed the fabric again. It was quite a process, and she did this to about 85 pieces of fabric!

The costumes have an almost fossil-like pattern to them, can you share more about the process and where that idea came from?

We knew we wanted texture for this piece, and as I was hunting for texture ideas, I came across a lot of manipulated pleats. I loved the depth that they offered, so I started incorporating that into designs. It eventually evolved into skeletal, carapace-like design elements. For the first half of the ballet you see so much more flowing and fluttering shape that is just anchored by the texture, but by the second half the garments become much more desiccated and skeletal. It is as if the bodies of the dancers have lost the much of fullness and softness of their original natural forms.

What are some of the key design decisions you've made to visually communicate the dancers' relationship and connection to nature?

We start creating the connection with nature by utilizing color and print at the beginning of the ballet, using greens and the prints with actual plants onto the fabric. The fabrics are soft and fluttering, and all the prints are very organic but symmetrical on both sides, like a butterfly or moth. As the dancers migrate away from harmony with their surroundings, the costumes trade the organic colors and textures for blankness and rigidity in their symmetry.

What were some of the most challenging aspects of this costume project for you and your team? Did you encounter any unexpected difficulties or particularly exciting breakthroughs?

The textural element is definitely one of the most challenging aspects of this whole project. All the chiffon garments for the first act are hand-pleated in the shop, which is fairly laborious and has to be precise. For the second act, we had the fabric professionally pleated in New York, and FedEx temporarily lost half the shipment! After much back and forth, we eventually received the second half of our pleated fabric, but it was looking pretty dire for a couple weeks. I thought we were going to have to implement some radical design changes to find a way to work with half the fabric we needed! Sometimes that kind of thing happens, and you just have to adapt to deal with it, but we were very fortunate that we were able to get back on track. However, timing has been pretty tight for this project - we are making two full sets of costumes to fit 32 dancers. We have had snow days where we could not get into the shop, and then HVAC repairs that have rendered our shop extremely toasty; it has been quite a roller coaster! But this costume shop is amazing. Everybody is on board with powering through these many complex garments and getting this show on the road. I could not ask for a better team.

What do you hope the costumes will evoke in audiences when they see them in The Rite of Spring?

I hope audiences will see the transition of from life to death; the journey from harmony to a savage disregard that ultimately leads them to sacrifice one of their own in an attempt to retrieve what they have lost.

The Rite of Spring will be on stage for two weekends, from February 7 to 14, 2025, at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, live with the Atlanta Ballet Orchestra.