Photo by Ann Marie Amick
Erica Johnston has been creating costumes for dance since 2004. She has designed for many of today's prominent contemporary choreographers, including Alexei Ratmansky, Jessica Lang, Claudia Schreier, Sidra Bell, Dwight Rhoden, Ingrid Silva, Igal Perry, Roderick George, Lia Cirio, Ken Ossola, Tsai-Hsi Hung, Gregory Dolbashian, Nicholas Palmquist, Adam Barruch, Keaton Leier, Derick McKoy, Bradley Shelver, Alison Cook Beatty, Ho-Shia Thao, and Virginie Méçène, among others. Company design credits include Kansas City Ballet, Boulder Ballet, ABT Studio Company, 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 (Orsolina), Israel, England, Scotland, Germany, Taiwan, and Mexico. Erica has also reconstructed costumes for many iconic dance restagings, including works by Alvin Ailey, Paul Taylor, George Balanchine, Lar Lubovitch, William Forsythe, Alwin Nikolais, Loie Fuller, Gerald Arpino, Jessica Lang, and José Limón.
Erica also works as a trusted builder for other New York based designers, constructing costumes for world-renowned companies including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, New York City Ballet, Miami City Ballet, the Martha Graham Dance Company, the Sarasota Ballet, Paul Taylor Dance Company, Ballet X, Ballet Hispánico, Limón Company, Philadelphia Ballet, Jessica Lang Dance, and Philadanco. She also works on projects outside of the dance world, including several costume collaborations with visual artist and poet Marce Avelar, design work for the performance art curation organization Art Bath at 92Y, and creating costumes for a performance in collaboration with artist Rosalind Tallmadge x CARVALHO Gallery. She has assisted designer Tilly Grimes for A$AP Rocky's "Testing the Waters" launch at Sotheby's NYC, stitched for the Big Apple Circus, and wardrobe supervised for Art Garfunkel. Erica is a recurring builder for styling duo Atelier Abene, creating custom pieces for their tour styling of legendary performers such as Jon Batiste and Janelle Monáe, and has also assisted them with building costumes for the final shows of the acclaimed NYC production Sleep No More. 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 is a guest instructor at the Ailey Extension and Ballet Arts at New York City Center. 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. 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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