Ace & Jig FW18 for Vogue
In late 2017, not long after I’d moved from New York to Los Angeles a friend of mine put me onto Carissa Gallo’s work. Carissa is a director and photographer but I don’t think either of those titles fully acknowledge her capacity for making beautiful art. When I looked at her work I was struck by a feeling I can only struggle to explain with an endless list of adjectives like - timeless, nostalgic, subtly playful, very thoughtful, and very much her own. I sent Carissa an email after finding her contact, listing the skills I had to offer, complimenting her work but trying not to come on too strong, and suggesting if she was ever in need of movement I was around. It might be a long shot emailing someone highly successful out of the blue, but the worst that can happen is they never write back...and that’s not so bad! So I took my chances. To my delight she replied and agreed we’d keep in touch. And as luck would have it, six months thereafter I got an email from Carissa asking if I’d be interested in being in and choreographing the video for Ace & Jig’s FW18 collection that was to premiere on Vogue.com. I willingly agreed and met Carissa at her house where we chatted about anything and everything. There’s something about her that’s quietly confident, extremely thoughtful, creatively inspiring, and nurturing. Naturally a great mover herself, she had a sound idea of what she wanted the movement to be. We went from there, creating simple, pedestrian, but still slightly left of center movement for this piece. Loosely based on an old Australian film, the setting informed the movement significantly. It would be executed by models (not dancers, except for my participation) so it needed to look good on them and more importantly, they needed to feel good doing it. Below are stills and the video that came out of a lightly foggy day in the Palisades.
Photos and film Carissa Gallo
