{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1625570"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1625570/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2023NJ0000/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2023NJ0000/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2023NJ0000","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1625570","accessionNumber":"S.826-2021","objectType":"Costume design","titles":[{"title":"The Nutcracker","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"Design by Lez Brotherston for the Arabian Dance in Act 2, The Kingdom of the Sweets, in the revival of Peter Darrell’s ballet <i>The Nutcracker</i> for Scottish Ballet, 2014.\n\nLez Brotherston OBE (born 1961) is an influential and innovative British set and costume designer, who trained at the Central School of Art and Design. Brotherston started his career designing for the film <i>Letter to Brezhnev</i> (1985) and has worked extensively across dance, theatre, opera, musical theatre and film. He is best known for his collaborations with choreographer Matthew Bourne and Bourne’s dance companies Adventures in Motion Pictures and New Adventures, where he is an Associate Artist. Their ground-breaking <i>Swan Lake</i> (1995) with male swans has received over 30 international awards to date, including a Tony Award for Best Costume Design. In 1998, Brotherston received the Olivier Award’s Outstanding Achievement in Dance for Matthew Bourne’s <i>Cinderella</i>, which was set during the Blitz. In 2005, Brotherston designed, co-wrote and co-directed <i>Les Liaisons Dangereuses</i> with Adam Cooper and has designed sets and costume for many national companies including the National Theatre, Scottish Ballet, English National Opera and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Brotherston received the Ninette de Valois Award for Outstanding Contribution to Dance in 2018 and has worked extensively throughout the UK with companies Kneehigh, Shakespeare’s Globe, Sheffield Crucible, Almeida Theatre, Northern Ballet, Theatre Royal Stratford East, Old Vic, Glyndebourne and Chichester Festival Theatre. He has also designed numerous productions for the West End including <i>Long Day’s Journey into Night</i>, <i>The Rise and Fall of Little Voice</i>, <i>Sister Act</i> and <i>Oh What a Lovely War</i>. In 2022 Brotherston was awarded an OBE for services to Dance and Theatre. \n\nPeter Darrell created his version of <i>The Nutcracker</i> for Scottish Ballet in 1972-3, as one of the traditional ballets which he felt should be in the repertory of a national company. The choreography was credited to Darrell and Lev Ivanov and the designs were by Philip Prowse. The staging allowed the ballet to tour effectively, and it proved very popular with audiences. Prowse’s set and costumes were in use until 1997. Though his designs survived, it was decided to commission Lez Brotherston to create a new staging when the company revived <i>The Nutcracker</i> for Christmas 2014. Darrell’s ballet was so well loved that Brotherston felt he should honour the original designs while revitalising the production for 21st-century audiences. Philip Prowse had been one of Brotherston’s tutors at the Central School of Art. \r\n\nIn the second act of <i>The Nutcracker</i> (traditionally The Kingdom of the Sweets) the ‘national’ dances celebrate luxuries, with the Arabian dance representative of coffee. Tchaikovsky’s score makes no attempt to represent the various nationalities with authentic music. The patterning of Brotherston’s costume is inspired by the designs of Léon Bakst and the shape of the skirt, worn over see-through harem pants, is derived from the costume which Bakst designed for Seraphine Astafieva and Tamara Karsavina in <i>Schéhérazade</i> in 1911, together with elements from <i>Le Dieu bleu</i> (1912). In 2021, when Darrell's <i>Nutcracker</i> was revised to remove some of the stereotypical elements of the costumes, the harem pants were replaced by tights, leaving the decorated tutu and elaborate jewels of Brotherston’s design. This took it closer to Philip Prowse’s 1972 costume. The Arabian Dance was cut from  Scottish Ballet's Nutcracker when it was revised and rechoreographed by Christopher Hampson and a team of choreographers in 2024.\r\n","physicalDescription":"Costume design by Lez Brotherston for the Arabian Dance in <i>The Nutcracker</i>. Full length female figure, looking to viewer's left. She wears a pink, orange, red and gold tutu with salmon-coloured harem pants, the bodice with an inset of dark blue at the front, the skirt covered by a shorter layer of geometrically patterned fabric, opening at front to show the deep pink tarlatan beneath, the patterning based on the work of Léon Bakst. She has strings of rubies as bracelets, a necklace and as hair decoration, and ruby earrings. The design is annotated in pencil with a list referencing a scarf or shawl. The printed title, 'Nutcracker', in shadow font capital letters, is mounted, right, running up the paper from bottom to top, with, in a similar, smaller font, the company name, 'Scottish Ballet', at the lower left hand corner, with 'Scottish' running up the edge of the paper from bottom to top and 'Ballet' running left to right. The word 'Arabian', in similar, smaller lettering, is mounted, upper right, running from left to right. All edges of the design are painted in a ragged black pattern to create a frame.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Brotherston, Lez","id":"A6676"},"association":{"text":"costume designers","id":"AAT163428"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"watercolour","id":"x33202"},{"text":"ink","id":"AAT15012"},{"text":"pencil","id":"x30347"},{"text":"paper","id":"x30308"}],"techniques":[{"text":"painting (image-making)","id":"AAT54216"},{"text":"drawing (image-making)","id":"AAT54196"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Watercolour, ink and pencil on paper","categories":[{"text":"Entertainment & Leisure","id":"THES48959"},{"text":"Designs","id":"THES48968"},{"text":"Dance","id":"THES252984"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"T&P","id":"THES48602"},"images":["2023NJ0000"],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"003","id":"THES402711"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"costume designs","id":""}],[{"text":"theatre designs","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Great Britain","id":"x32019"},"association":{"text":"designed","id":"x29338"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"2014","earliest":"2014-01-01","latest":"2014-12-31"},"association":{"text":"designed","id":"x29338"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Given by the designer","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"29.6","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"42","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Design by Lez Brotherston for the Arabian Dance in Act 2 of the revival of Peter Darrell’s ballet <i>The Nutcracker</i> for Scottish Ballet, 2014","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["S.826-2021"],"accessionNumberNum":"826","accessionNumberPrefix":"S","accessionYear":2021,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-01-26","recordCreationDate":"2021-05-21","availableToBook":false}}