Experimental Archeology in the Rediscovery of Lost Ballet

This project centres on building on and expanding the practice of experimental archaeology to better understand Oman’s designs for the Boston Ballet’s first full-length ballet Swan Lake (1981), of which only Oman’s designs have survived. Through remaking we are able to uncover information on cost and skill as well as being able to test the costumes to better understand how and why a costume
might be considered successful or unsuccessful. Many of Oman’s designs are still in use 50-years later, and this ballet stands in particular contrast as one which was quickly redesigned, and as so little survives on the performance, we must turn to what remains to uncover the reasons for the redesign and the loss of the production.