The Dutch artist and director Jan Doms invited Juliane Schreiber to develop the costumes for his multidisciplinary dance performance ‘Tanzen auf dem Malerwanderweg’ (Dancing on the Malerwanderweg). The premiere took place on 30 September 2017 in Theaters Tilburg. Central to the performance was the dancer Ulrike Doszmann, for whom Schreiber designed a transformable knitted dress.
Together with Jan-Willem Smeulders, a product developer in the TextielLab, Schreiber investigated new textile possibilities and applications. She was particularly interested in transparency, incorporating reflective materials and the metamorphosis brought about by putting on and taking off the costume. She also looked at ways for the costume to resonate with the environment, by making the garment react to light and physical movement. Ultimately, the costume had to become a kind of skin, which could expand and fill the space.
In developing the costume, Schreiber not only worked intensively with dancer Ulrike Doszmann and light artists Wiersma & Smeets but also with the other artists in the multidisciplinary performance: Jan Doms (libretto, scenography and direction), Evelien van den Broek (vocals and electronics), Ries Doms (drums), Wout Kemkens (guitar), Jarno van Es (piano), Ernst Bonis (composition and electronics) and Joris Bonis (sound and electronics). Doms also created a large, moving steel and glass disc eight metres in diameter for the performance as a metaphor for the mountains along the river Elbe. The heavy, industrial materials inspired Schreiber to choose muted colours for the knitted costume as well as a range of materials. These included wool, Elirex, polypropylene, polyester and reflective yarn.
