Costumes

For Alejita, an important part of the design is that the costumes are transformable: the aprons can turn into capes. In doing so, the design consciously breaks the stereotypical image of the woman in the kitchen and reverses this into an image of strength, autonomy and heroism. The performers do not wear their aprons as a symbol of servitude, but as a cape emphasizing their heroic and spiritual power.

The symbols printed on the cloths and costumes were jointly developed by visual artists Alejita and Judith Westerveld. They brought the images to life by manually printing them onto the cloths and costumes. The central symbols in the performance are the drop, moon phases, dragonfly and ammonite.

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Drop with moon phases: This symbol honors the divine feminine and is a visual ode to the womb as a source of life, transformation and intergenerational connection. The flowing lines forming the drop refer to water, symbolizing flow, cleansing and emotional depth, and also to the ancestral line, women passing on their strength and wisdom from generation to generation. The moon phases above the drop – waxing, full and waning – reflect the phases of the female cycle – growth, release and rebirth – as well as intuition and change. The symbol is a call to sisterhood and the importance for women to support, heal and remind each other of their true strength.

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Ammonites: These ancient fossils with their spiral-shaped shells symbolize the circle of life, growth and evolution. In different cultures, ammonites are seen as symbols of constant change and endless possibilities, and represent creativity, intuition, fertility and rebirth.

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Dragonflies: As spiritual animals, dragonflies symbolize the wisdom and resilience to adapt to change. Throughout their lives, dragonflies transform – from water creatures, to land and air creatures. They symbolize becoming your true self through transformation.

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Set

The set was created in collaboration between visual artists Alejita, Judith Westerveld and Boaz van den Ban. Together they worked on the scenography of the performance and made various set pieces to frame the scenes.

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Judith designed an installation of portraits painted on crepe paper depicting three ‘women warriors’ from history who are mentioned in the performance. These portraits represent Ida I Dewa Agung Istri Kanya, military commander and king/queen of Klungkung in Bali; Ma Pansa, the ancestral mother of the Saamaka in Suriname who escaped slavery with rice seeds braided into her hair; and Nzinga, military commander and king/queen of the Ndongo and Matamba in present-day Angola.

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This collaboration ensured that the costumes and scenography were aligned, and that from different disciplines the stories of female role models were brought to the audience.

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• Visual artist, costume design and styling: Alejita (Alejandra Silva)

• Scenography and symbol design: Alejita and Judith Westerveld

• Set: joint creative process of Alejita, Judith Westerveld and Boaz van den Ban with artistic finishing touch by Alejita (cloths and braids)