Designer Tracy Grant Lord Dresses Scottish Ballet

Aucklander Tracy Grant Lord is the brains behind the costumes and set of Scottish Ballet’s Cinderalla, a production originally created for the Royal New Zealand Ballet in 2007, which Grant Lord also worked on. This is her first project for the UK company.

Grant Lord first got a glimpse into the world of theatre after working as a stage manager for two years at Mercury Theatre after leaving school.

She has since designed costumes for the opera and theatre.

“I realised I could make a career out of it if I applied myself and did well,” Grant Lord says. “I was really lucky and had a lot of good breaks when I was young, and I was 23 when I designed my first opera.”

Designing for ballet, however, takes quite a different approach to opera, as the dancers need to be able to move as freely as they can.

“They have to feel really comfortable on stage and there are all sorts of methods we use in ballet that we wouldn’t apply elsewhere,” she says.

Bethany Kingsley-Garner, who has the role of Cinderella, says Grant Lord’s set is beautiful.

“It looks like an enchanted garden,” Kingsley-Garner says.

In 2015, Grant Lord worked on the Royal New Zealand Ballet’s production of Midsummer Nights Dream with famed 29-year-old choreographer Liam Scarlett, artist in residence at the Royal Ballet in London.

Cinderella runs at HM Theatre in Aberdeen from 20 January until 23 January, and in Inverness from 27 to 30 January.

Original article by Laura Redpath, The Press and Journal, January 14, 2016.