Michelle Dufaur

Theme: Dancers

Dancers — Movement and costumes

Over a decade ago, Dance Director Rosaria Gracia joined the team and has been leading a stunning group of volunteer dancers on the parade ever since. Bringing a dynamic flash of movement and colour to the parade, they also create a show on the beach as the lanterns are passed into the fire.

The BTC lantern that I’m creating is titled ‘Dance’ and will reflect the movement and costumes of the parade dancers. The unifying masks and wide pleating skirts / wings will feature in my design. It will be found as part of the trail on Kensington Gardens in Brighton. Patterning on the finished piece will adapt to reflect the strong designs that reverberate throughout the window display.

Dancers Burning the Clocks. Photo Simon Dack

The design pulls in two elements of the parade, the dancer’s face masks & the fanned skirts that accentuate movement

I enlarged initial sketches to act as a paper template and built my structure

I am building a front and back and attaching the two pieces into a wedge

I paper using triangles of wet strength. It means there’s a bit of overlapping but much easier to shape & easily tuck behind each piece of willow