Yolanda Sonnabend: designer of MacMillan's 'neurotic' ballets
The late dance designer's views on bums, 'Swan Lake', and seeing into the choreographer's mind
Ever since Diaghilev’s day the relationship of dance movement to its visual design has been a lively, sometimes combative affair. Sometimes people leave whistling the set, saying shame about the dance; other times they hate the set, love the dance. As with the relationship of dance to music, the fit of look to movement can be decisive in why a new ballet escapes the curse of ephemerality and becomes a firm memory that people wish to revisit. It directs the audience how to read it.