During a recent rehearsal at the Dutch National Opera and Ballet in Amsterdam, the dancer Matchima Josephine Flos was struggling to escape from an oversize peach-colored jumpsuit made of puffer fabric. She twisted, turned and pressed through the open neck until she finally emerged, like a butterfly from a chrysalis, wearing a sheer tulle gown.
Flos was rehearsing the opening of “Figure,” a new dance piece created by the fashion designer Lisa Konno in collaboration with the choreographer Peter Leung, that tries to answer a simple question: What if choreography starts with the costumes?
The 45-minute work, performed by three dancers and three models, will have seven performances, from Thursday through Jan. 31, 2026, at the Dutch National Opera and Ballet’s second stage, Studio Boekman, a space devoted to experimentation.
While typical dance costumes are designed for flexibility and to show off the dancer’s body, Konno’s fashions are intentionally cumbersome and restrictive. In addition to the big puffer jumpsuit, she has created knit bodysuits, masks and shoes made of fragile ceramics, and a ceramic hoop skirt, like an overturned bowl or a church bell.
The concept for the work “came out of my own love-hate relationship with fashion,” Konno said in an interview.
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