If you go to Dorset, be sure to find the Ryves Almshouses in Blandford Forum. One of only two builidngs that survived the fire that destroyed the entire city.

Thanks, Dan Reeves

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Wow, love the costume – it looks EXACTLY like the one from the movie! Great job!

I was wondering how long it took you to create this entire costume.

I loved your scene by scene analysis and I read it all. But I have to say that I believe your conclusion is the same as the editor’s (and Aronofsky’s).

Thanks for the compliment and/or suggestion though!

Was just wondering how many of the little pieces you glued on compared to how much of the clay you just built all at once together on the wire base. Is there an advantage to gluing the pieces together versus just making it all at once as one big piece on the wire? Does it have to do with the strength of the tiara or maybe with the drying time?

Thank You!

I’m just saying, I think you could charge more and it’s well worth it!

On my costume there are a few places I did use tulle: the double pleats on the front bodice and to make what I called swan fluff…all of these items are on the tutu bodice, not on the tutu skirt. I’m still working on my tutu construction page, but you should check it out anyways. The materials I used are listed there.

thank you again.

In short you will need — clay — wire — black spray paint — gun metal gray paint — clear gloss finish — rhinestones — rhinestone settings — a smaller gauge wire for the rhinestone settings. If you want me to give you a brand name, size, quantity listing…I’m afraid at this moment I am a little too busy to do that. I am working on another costume project….I haven’t even had the time to finish my black swan costume tutu guide. Sorry! Wish I could be more detailed for you in this short amount of time that you have. I think even without the crystals you would have a mighty fine tiara. That aspect really increased the cost of my tiara making…$20.00 (not including shipping or the settings) alone in just the clear ones!

I was just wondering if maybe you can give me a list of supplies that i will need to try and create this tiara for Halloween.

You did such a great job on this. IT’S AWESOME.

What kind of glue did you use? I looked at the pics and read the description but couldn’t find the type. Do you think any sort of 2-ton 2-hour set epoxy would do? Thanks!

By fake rhinestones, I am assuming that you mean acrylic, or plastic. Any glass type rhinestones are still rather expensive whether they are Swarvoski or not. I would try Michaels. I know I saw some sew-on ones at Hancock Fabric too. You will definitely notice a difference in sheen/shine when moving from glass based rhinestones to plastic. Aside from the sew-on types, I think you will run into issues on how to apply these to your costume. Glue is not the most secure thing in the world, and its hard to apply–especially considering the quantity of stones applied to the bodice.

Check back for more updates as I continue to write about this. I will be providing some photographs too, which you may find helpful.

I’ve been dancing ballet for several years (though never with the thought of doing it professionally) and it was still difficult for me to differentiate beweteen double/Natalie Portman in the movie. I enjoyed it, it was a well done piece of entertainment, with beautiful dancing scenes. I believe, though, that it is important not to let people think too highly/unrealistically about certain people, especially Hollywood actors and let them believe that they’re actually prodigies, “pulling this off”, when they’re actually NOT. I was never a marvellous dancer like Lane, but I poured my heart into it as long as I could, so it somehow made me slightly angry Natalie Portman was hyped as someone who learned all that stuff in 1.5 years…

Thank you for the detailed report, keep up the good work & take care =)

Love what you did with your costume and for all the ideas! Thanks so much for posting

I am doing this for Halloween, but am hesitant to go full on platter tutu since I will likely be in crowds.

You looked fabulous by the way! I had a friend who went and I told him to look for you.

Thank you,
Vickie Arentz

Thanks for the post though. =)

I do think Sara Lane exaggerated her contribution to the movie too much, which led some people to have an impression that more of this movie’s dance scenes have Sara Lane in it.
Were we lied to? Depends on how you see it, but if you see manipulation of the truth in order to better increase an image, Sara Lane did lie.

I have been in the dance world for 3 years, and danced my self for 1.5 years, and I know little, I still have a hard time picking out everything. Whereas my girfriend has been dancing for 19 years, she sees things I don’t. It’s just a matter of understanding. And yes, with my dancing I can sometimes pull off a decent shape or two, but making shapes isn’t really dancing. Portman made shapes, and beautiful ones, it is a part of dancing, but it isn’t dancing. Four lines makes a rectangle but one line is just a line.

Lane is a wonderful dancer and how dare you say that she is anything but that! And then compare here to Portman. Also, again, you also say she is talking about “me me mememememe” if I recall, and she is not. I read the interview on WSJ. She is merely talking about how she wants to be known for her contribution, not to detract from what Portman did. And also to emphasize that ballet cannot be mastered in one year. To be honest, prior to stumbling upon this all today I thought Portman did the dancing. And I was thinking “Wow, that is absolutely insane that she learned all that so quickly.” Then I heard she had had some previous training, and I thought, that must have been it.

So that is what Lane in responding too. That the public at large falsely believes that Portman did all this beautiful work. When in fact, she did not. The beautiful work was Lane’s, and the not so difficult work was Portman.

Furthermore, the general public has no clue what ballet really is, they know it involves tutus and walking on your toes and that’s about it. So, the director/creator had Portman train hard so that way in the film, the average viewer would not notice a difference because they don’t know any better.

At first, Lane was ok with it. Then she felt like she was brushed under the carpet like a cheap whore, and she decided to speak out about it. It is common really, for someone to be ok with something at first and then as time goes on and it gets worse or no better they get upset and eventually speak out.

And about your comment on ballet dancers being socially inept. That isn’t too far from the truth. Dance consumes dancers, it is their life, much like a computer nerd is consumed in hours of coding and programming. Of course this rule doesn’t apply to everyone, but I would say, from the many dancers I know, they aren’t exactly outspoken. Like Nina from the movie, she is quiet.

Just so you know it, NP didn’t keep the fact that a dance double was used secret.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Swan_dance_double_controversy
She even mentioned Sara lane on Letterman (not by name though but there weren’t many other ATB dancers on the set)

Keep up the good work. Always nice to see a more educated take (on ballet) on a situation.

I personally found the zoomed in pointe work memorable because as the dancer sits down out of that, you see Portman’s face for the first time, and she truly looks beautiful–not simply because I have studied ballet in the past.

Good point you have made to remember: not everyone is going to remember something “the most” all the same. It is entirely based on experience and what we find most appealing.

Thanks!

It’s a movie. I would rather say that most of us pay attention to the face of the actor not the feet. Yes, even while dancing.

Most of us don’t dance. and only a few grasp ballet enough to be actually able to scrutinise Natalies performance.

.. am sure there’s a place for each technique and, either way, have learnt from this post so cheers.