The Irish Umbrella Dancer (female) costume consists of a wrap around skirt and Driza bone hat, socks and boots. The wrap around circle skirt is made form navy blue fabric and lined with yellow polyester. The Driza bone squatters style hat is made from brown felted wool. The socks are cream coloured cotton slouch socks. The boots are brown leather lace up boots made by Blundstone.

The costume featured in the Tin Symphony segment of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony and was worn by one of 200 female performers who carried painted 'cog' umbrella onto the performance area and performed an irish dance on the laid down tin sheets. . The costume was designed by Dan Potra and it's manufacture coordinated by the Ceremonies Costume Workshop in Redfern, NSW. The Opening Ceremony of the 2000 Olympic Games comprised three major sections: mandatory formalities and protocol sections, the cultural display and the entrance of the athletes. The Tin Symphony segment presented a theatrical representation of Australia's colonization of the bush and growth as an industrialised nation 'on the sheep's back'. Tin Symphony is a celebration of the energy, humour and ingenuity that drove the settlement of the Australian Bush - the ubiquitous wind mills, derricks and water tanks of rural Australia and the improvised machinery of cogs, drive belts and pulleys. The segment moves from Captain Cook's arrival, past the Irish refugees, Ned Kelly and sheep shearing, and ends up in a quadrille of Victa lawnmowers. Farm machinery becomes an animated apparatus for performers, powered by pulleys, bicycle chains and human sweat. Sydney 200 Olympic Opening Ceremony Programme

Dan Potra was born in Romania where he studied film, television and theatre design at the Art Institute Nicolae Grigorescu, graduating in 1987. He designed overseas for the Romanian National Theatre as well as working as a production, graphic and interior designer for film and theatre in Romania and Vienna. Potra graduated from the Design course at NIDA in 1991 and currently designs for theatre, opera, film and television Opera Australia repertoire: Carmen, LakmÂ?, Jenufa, Orlando (OzOpera), Ariadne auf Naxos, Batavia His design work also includes; Carmen, The Threepenny Opera (West Australian Opera); Christina's World, Quito (Sydney Metropolitan Opera); The Burrow, Wide Sargasso Sea (Chamber Made Opera); Rigoletto, Barber of Seville (Wellington City Opera); Lenz, Orlando (OzOpera/Melbourne Festival); The Medium, Trouble in Tahiti, Tolemeo (Muziektheater, Belgium); Salome (Mariinsky Opera in St Petersburg and 2001 Melbourne International Festival of Arts); Carmina Burana (State Opera of South Australia and Australian Ballet); A Streetcar Named Desire (St Gallen Theater und Opera); La bohÂ?me (Berlin Staatsopera). The design of the Irish Umbrella Dancers costume is representative of the classic working dress of early rural Australia. The period of the garments is intentionally non specific.

Maker name Coordinated by the Ceremonies Costume Workshop

Worn by one of 200 female performers who carried painted 'cog' umbrellas onto the performance area and performed an Irish dance on the laid down tin sheets.

Presented to the Powerhouse Museum by the Olympic Coordination Authority, on behalf of the NSW Government

Performance costume, titled Irish Umbrella Dancer (female), fabric/leather, designed by Dan Potra , used in the Tin Symphony segment of the Opening Ceremony of Olympic Games, Sydney, 2000

Irish umbrella dancer (female) costume that consists of a skirt and Driza bone hat, socks and boots. The wrap around circle skirt is made form navy blue fabric and lined with yellow polyester. The Driza bone squatters style hat is made from brown felted wool. The socks are cream coloured cotton slouch socks. The boots are brown leather lace up boots made by Blundstone.

Made: 2000

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2000