( The Blood, Sweat & Blister Shirt )

“I have a wardrobe full of garments I could never throw out because they have too much of an emotional value to me. This T-Shirt is just but one. It reminds me of the most beautiful time in my life to date: the time that I was a professional dancer.”

When I was just a little girl of 5 years old, I could not sit still and needed to move and dance all the time. I continued moving and dancing until I was 28. As a dancer, I used to wear dancing clothes over eight hours a day, six days a week. Dancers usually develop their own type of “fashion”. We use scissors to cut up our apparel in such a way that it fits exactly like we want it to. We might cut out the collar from one shirt, remove the sleeves from another, and instead of buying shorts we will most probably just take an old pair of pants and cut off the legs.

This T-Shirt originates from the Internationaal Danstheater, the company in the Netherlands with which I danced for eight years. I wore this shirt on tour to India, took it on stage in the most beautiful theaters, enjoyed classes from the world’s most renowned dancing teachers in it, and repeatedly put it in close contact with – of course – lots of blood, sweat and blisters.

Nowadays I hardly ever put it on, but I am wearing it while writing these words, and the most wonderful memories from that magnificent time come straight back to me.

( Claudia )
( The Netherlands )