Photo by Ann Marie Amick
Erica Johnston has been creating costumes for dance since 2004. She has designed for Igal Perry, Jessica Lang, Claudia Schreier, Sidra Bell, Dwight Rhoden, Lia Cirio, Gregory Dolbashian, Nicholas Palmquist, Adam Barruch, Derick McKoy, Bradley Shelver, Alison Cook Beatty, Jessica Chen, Stuart Lewis, Ho-Shia Thao, and Virginie Méçène, among others. Company design credits include Kansas City Ballet, Peridance Company, Cirio Collective, Dance Kaleidoscope, Nimbus Dance, McKoy Dance Project, and Ballet MAR London. Her design work has been seen across the USA, as well as in Italy, Israel, England, Scotland, Germany, and Mexico. Erica has also reconstructed costumes for many iconic dance restagings, including works by Alvin Ailey, Paul Taylor, George Balanchine, William Forsythe, Alwin Nikolais, Loie Fuller, Gerald Arpino, Jessica Lang, and José Limón.
Additionally, Erica works as a trusted builder for other New York based designers, constructing costumes for world-renowned companies including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, the Sarasota Ballet, Paul Taylor Dance Company, Ballet X, Ballet Hispánico, Limón Company, Philadelphia Ballet, ABT Studio Company, Ailey II, Jessica Lang Dance, Philadanco, Rioult, New York City Ballet, and MadBoots Dance. She also works on projects outside of the dance world, including assisting designer Tilly Grimes for A$AP Rocky's "Testing the Waters" at Sotheby's NYC, stitching for the Big Apple Circus, wardrobe supervising for Art Garfunkel, and stitching for Atelier Abene for Jon Batiste + Stay Human as well as building leotards under their direction for both Sleep No More and the dancers in Janelle Monáe’s “Age of Pleasure” tour. Additionally, she has built costumes for television shows, including HBO's "Legendary! Season 1" and Disney Plus's "The Quest", both designed by Johnny Wujek and supervised by Sarah Dixey.
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Erica has an extensive dance background, which greatly influences both the form and function in everything she designs. She trained with the Champaign Urbana Ballet, the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago, Alonzo King's LINES, Paul Taylor's American Modern Dance, Visceral Dance Chicago, Peridance Contemporary Dance Company, and Ballet Arts at New York City Center. She graduated Cum Laude from Butler University with a BFA in Dance Performance and now freelances in and around New York, NY. Erica was mentored in costume design and construction by Kathleen Egan, Karl Kaufman, Julianna Steitz, Anne C. de Velder, John Dayger, Deanna Doty, Mondo Morales, and Mark Eric, During lockdown in 2020, Erica worked with composer Nevada Lozano and pianist Wesley Ducote to produce an album of original music for ballet class and an accompanying pedagogical guide for introducing music theory to dancers; you can find out more about this project here. "Music for Ballet Class" is available to stream on Spotify, Pandora, Apple Music, and YouTube. Erica is also the original pattern maker and builder for Illuminate Dancewear, a Chicago-based dance apparel brand founded by Carrie Patterson that partners with various nonprofit organizations. Check out more about Illuminate Dancewear here! Contact Erica: [email protected] Follow Erica (@edjohnst) on Instagram here! |
Photo by Brian Thomas
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