Biography
Born in Leeds (United Kingdom). Graduated from Trent Polytechnic (now Nottingham Trent University) with a BA in Theatre Design. Works as a costume designer in the opera, ballet and drama theatres. She is in demand in the UK and beyond.She regularly collaborates with Christian Spuck. Has worked with him on the ballet productions in the theatres in Europe, including Russia, and the USA and Canada: Lulu eine Monstretragödie to the music by D. Shostakovich, A. Berg, A. Schoenberg, N. Washington and D. Tiomkin, based on the plays by F. Wedekind (2003, Stuttgart Ballet)
Der Sandmann to the music by to the music by R. Schumann, A. Schnittke, M. Donner, based on the novella by E.T.A. Hoffmann (2006, Stuttgart Ballet; 2008, The Latvian National Ballet; 2016, Ballet Zurich)
The Return of Ulysses to the music by H. Purcell and the popular songs from the 1940s and 50s. (2006, the Royal Ballet of Flanders, the production was shown at the Edinburg International Festival)
Don Q to the music by F. Schubert, A. Schnittke and the popular songs (2007, Stuttgart company Gauthier Dance, a co-production with the Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg, with support from the Stuttgart Ballet in the framework of the 80th anniversary of J. Cranko)
Leonce und Lena to the music by J. Strauss, B.A. Zimmermann, A. Ponchielli, A. Schnittke, M. Donner, L. Delibes and C. Porter, based on the play of the same name by G. Büchner (2008, the world premiere by the Aalto Ballett Theatre; 2010, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal; 2019, Charlotte Ballet/USA; 2019, The Czech National Ballet/ The National Theatre in Prague)
poppea//poppea to the music by C. Monteverdi, M. Donner and others (2010, the Stuttgart company Gauthier Dance, the Dance Europe magazine included this piece into the top ten productions of the 2009-10 season, in 2011 it was commended by Der Faust Theatre Prize and an award from the Italian magazine Danza & Danza)
Woyzeck to the music by M. Donner, P. Glass, G. Kurtág and A. Schnittke, based on the play of the same name by G. Büchner, (2011, The Norwegian National Ballet, Oslo; 2013, Ballet Zurich)
Das Fräulein von S. to the music by R. Schumann, M. Donner, P. Glass and M. Torke, based on the short story by E.T.A. Hoffmann (2012, Stuttgart Ballet)
Romeo and Juliet by S. Prokofiev (2012, Ballet Zurich)
Sonnet to the music by P. Glass, based on the sonnets by W. Shakespeare (2014, Ballet Zurich)
Anna Karenina to the music by S. Rachmaninov and R. Lutosławski (2014, Ballet Zurich, a co-production with the Norwegian National ballet; 2016, the Norwegian National ballet; 2016, the Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Academic Music Theatre; 2017, the Korean National Ballet; 2017, the Bavarian State Ballet)
Requiem to the music by G. Verdi (2016, a co-production by Ballet Zurich and The Zurich Opera House)
Winterreise to the music by H. Zender and F. Shubert (2018, Ballet Zurich)
Little Match Girl to the music by H. Lachenmann (2019, Ballet Zurich)
She often works not only as a costume designer but as a set designer, for example, in the 2018 production of Cinderella by S. Prokofiev for the Finnish National Ballet (choreography by D. Bintley).
Twice she created the costumes for the ballet programme of the annual broadcasted New Year Concert by The Vienna Philharmonic (2016 and 2020).
Work for the opera theatre:
Manon Lescaut by G. Puccini (2000, The English National Opera; 2001, The Gothenburg opera house, Sweden)
Nine, a musical by M. Yeston (2002, Malmö Opera, Sweden)
Les pêcheurs de perles by G. Bizet (2003, The State Opera of Tatarstan)
One Touch of Venus by K. Weill (2004, Opera North, Leeds)
Berenice by J.M. Staud (2005, the world premiere, Göteborg theatre, Germany)
Il Barbiere di Siviglia by G. Rossini (2006, Grange Park Opera, Surrey, United Kingdom)
La damnation de Faust by H/ Berlioz (2007, Semperoper Dresden; 2014, Deutsche Oper Berlin)
Aida by G. Verdi (2008, Welsh National Opera, Cardiff)
Othello by G. Verdi (2008, The Salzburg Festival, The Teatro dell'Opera di Roma)
Orphée et Eurydice by C.W. Gluck (2009, the Stuttgart State Opera)
Sunset Boulevard by A.L. Webber (2010, The Gothenburg opera house)
Falstaff by G. Verdi (2010, the State Theatre of Wiesbaden)
Mathis der Maler by P. Hindemith (2012, Theater an der Wien; Austrian Music Award for “the best production”)
The Great Gatsby by J. Harbison (2015, Semperoper Dresden)
Der fliegende Holländer (2017, The Deutsche Oper Berlin)
Marco Polo by E. Schneider (2018, The Guangzhou Opera House, China)
Das Rheingold by R. Warner (2019, Longborough Festival Opera, United Kingdom)
La bohème by G. Puccini (2019, Copenhagen Opera Festival, the production was honoured The Sonning Prize in culture in the nomination “the best new opera production”)
She repeatedly cooperated with famous opera director Keith Warner and created the costumes for the opera productions by Christian Spuck.
In drama theatre:
Rock’n’Roll by T. Stoppard (2006, The Royal Court Theatre, London; 2006, The Duke of York's Theatre, West End, London; 2007, The National Theatre, Prague; 2007, The Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, Broadway, New York)
The Heart of Robin Hood by D. Farr (2011, the Royal Shakespeare Theatre; 2013, Den Nationale Scene/DNS in Bergen, Norway; 2013, American Repertory Theatre, Boston, USA; 2014, Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre in Winnipeg, Canada; 2014, Uppsala City Theater, Sweden; 2014, The Royal Alexandra Theatre, Toronto, Canada; 2015, The National Theatre of Iceland, Reykjavík. Nominated for Dora Mavor Moore Award (the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts) as “the best costume design”)
The season The Young Chekhov: Platonov, Ivanov, Seagull (2015, Chichester Festival Theatre, United Kingdom; 2016, The Royal National theatre, London)
In 2021, she worked at the Bolshoi for the first time, on the ballet production Orlando to the music by E. Elgar, P. Glass, B. Auerbach and E. Kats-Chernin (choreography by Ch. Wheeldon).
Art. Lebedev Studio