Leah Johnstone-Mosher

Big Red Door was a commissioned collaboration with Boston's Urbanity Dance Company and designers Tagore Hernandez and Leah Johnstone-Mosher. Director and choreographer Betsy Graves's creative process offered the unique opportunity to the designers to influence the choreography with the props that they designed and fabricated. 

Though initially Ms.Graves requested a single red door, the collaboration made the designers realize that multiple doors could give dancers the power to reconfigure the stage during the performance. Going through a basic iterative process, the designers developed a door that could open as one solid door or in three panels. 

The tracks on which the doors roll fit into one another allowing all three doors to appear as one on stage. 

Constructed of hollow core doors to reduce weight, dancers were able to move the props easily throughout the performance. 

The three panel door feature allows dancers to create compelling frames. The three panels also associate with the strong 1,2,3 of the chosen music, a relationship that was highly utilized in the choreography.