Battle for the Winds - Dress and Tech Run!

With 2 days until the main performance, it was the day of the dress and tech run! Arriving in Weymouth at the Wardrobe tent on the beach it was all go - but very relaxed. We had managed to get almost everything done before the costumes were moved to Weymouth, the only things left to do to get the costumes ready were any extra embellishments and some last minute adjustments to the headdresses.

Due to this we were able to go and watch the Battle for the Winds regional performances on the promenade! This was a wonderful opportunity after seeing the costumes being made from last year and various fittings in the studio to finally getting to see them being used. There was some quintessential British

In the evening with the performers set to arrive, it was all ahead to get the groups dressed as they were stewarded to us. There was a change to the original plan - initially myself and Jessica Howard were meant to be dressing the Brazilians in their hotel, but it was decided that it would be easier and more efficient to dress them in the wardrobe tent on the live site where the rest of the Breathers were being dressed. This worked out so well that it was decided that we would do the same thing again for the main performance on Saturday. Myself, Jessica and Lois were the main Brazilian dressers, while dressing the other Breather groups as well as they came in. It was a relatively relaxed process but with the run open to the public, we had to be very firm on scheduling.

With the last of the Breathers dressed and ready to go, we collected the boxes of contingency materials and headed to the backstage tent where the Breathers were getting ready to go on - at which point myself and Jessica were asked if, as they had never seen the performance, if we could go with the Aerialist Breathers to get them into the last items of their costumes once they were in the harnesses. Where we were we could see the main screens from the inside of the performance space, but most of the action was hidden and there were the standard technical problems that come with any teck run. However it was still an incredible taster to the final performance!

Aeolis, begining his ascent

From where we were stationed across the road from the fenced off performance space Aeolus, Father of the Winds and one of the principal performers, was air lifted over the road and onto the stage. We had time while he was waiting to go over to have a small chat with him before the crane took him up and over. I think this was very reassuring to our Breather Aerialists as a couple of them were quite nervous about going up. Myself and Jessica kept them occupied and reassured them as best we could, watching the screens of the main performance and waiting for the call for them to go up.

With the last part of the show looming it was time to get the performers into their harnesses and the past parts of their costumes. This proved tricky with one of our performers as since the last time I had helped dress him his cloak had been altered so I was not sure initially which way round it was supposed to be! There was also the added nerve wracking aspect that we were attaching parts of costumes while at the same time being very aware that we were attaching them over the top of safety harnesses, however we kept reassuring the performers and encouraging them, and they were hoisted safely into the air and into their performance. They were incredible, performing somersaults and acrobatics with ease. After arriving back safely on the ground and being released from their harnesses, it was time to take them back to the backstage tent to get changed out of their outer costumes - but we allowed them to take their base costumes home with them.

With this done, we took the outer costumes back to the wardrobe tent to be sorted into their individual bags and sections.

It was a long and busy day but one that left with it a feeling of incredible pride in our performers, and anticipation for the main event to come.