{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1625576"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1625576/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2023NJ2455/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2023NJ2455/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2023NJ2455","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1625576","accessionNumber":"S.832-2021","objectType":"Costume design","titles":[{"title":"Swan Lake","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"Design by Lez Brotherston for the Fan Dancer Woman in Swank Bar, a 1970s disco in Soho (Act 1 Scene 6), in a revival of Matthew Bourne’s <i>Swan Lake</i> for New Adventures. \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. In 1998, Brotherston received the Olivier Award’s Outstanding Achievement in Dance for Matthew Bourne’s <i>Cinderella</i>. 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\nFollowing its creation in 1995, <i>Swan Lake</i>, an up-to-date reinterpretation of the late 19th-century ballet by Lev Ivanov and Marius Petipa, has been seen throughout the world. Among the 30 awards received over 25 years are the Society of West End Theatre Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production (1996) and the Tony Awards for Best Director of a Musical and Best Choreography for Matthew Bourne and Best Costume Design for Lez Brotherston (1999). It is noted as the longest running ballet in London's West End (although not in one continuous run). Brotherston was not Bourne's first choice of designer for <i>Swan Lake</i> as they had recently collaborated on <i>Highland Fling</i> and Bourne had already designed a <i>Swan Lake</i> for Northern Ballet. However, by choosing to work together, they cemented a theatre partnership that has continued though all New Adventures productions. \n \nAt the end of Act 1 the Prince visits a shady dive, Swank Bar, originally described by Bourne as a ‘retro club …full of sixties characters: Sister George, Joe Orton, Cliff Richard, the Krays, Phyllis Dixie.’ The latter was a British stripper who, in <i>Swan Lake</i>, becomes the fan dancer. The purpose was to suggest that the Prince had become involved with scandalous characters. In the revivals the club became more a 1970s-style disco, with the scene focusing on the dance rather than impersonations. The choreography veers from classical ballet into jazz forms and modern dance. The Prince gets into a fight with sailors at the bar, and he is thrown out into the street. ","physicalDescription":"Costume design by Lez Brotherston for a fan dancer in <i>Swan Lake</i>. Full length female figure, looking to viewer's left. She wears a black, partly fishnet, bustier bodysuit, black fishnet stockings with suspenders, long black lace gloves and has a flesh coloured under-bodice with black sequins, a heavy necklace and earrings. Her peroxide blonde hair is worn in beehive style. In each hand she holds a large dark blue ostrich feathered fan. She smokes a cigarette. The figure stands in front of a black frame, breaking the frame at top and bottom. Within the frame, lower left, is the ballet title, 'Swan Lake', in black ink, imitating the lettering used in the production's publicity. In pencil, upper right, are the words, ‘new for Dancer’. On the left side, within the frame, is pencilled 'Swan Lake', running up the paper from bottom to top. \n","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"},{"text":"","id":""}],"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":["2023NJ2455"],"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":"2010s","earliest":"2010-01-01","latest":"2019-12-31"},"association":{"text":"designed","id":"x29338"},"note":"The design is undated but is clearly for a revival, rather than the original 1995 production. The V&A holds designs for the 1995 and 2004 productions and also some undated designs, which, like this one, are probably from the 2010s."}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Given by the designer","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"41.2","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"31.1","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Design by Lez Brotherston for the Fan Dancer in Swank Bar, Soho, in Act 1 Scene 6 of a revival of Matthew Bourne's <i>Swan Lake</i> for New Adventures\r\n","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["S.832-2021"],"accessionNumberNum":"832","accessionNumberPrefix":"S","accessionYear":2021,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-01-26","recordCreationDate":"2021-05-21","availableToBook":false}}