"It's such a blurry line, actually," Austin Goodwin says of the difference between movement direction and choreography, "because sometimes when you're hired as a movement director, you're basically choreographing. And sometimes when you're hired as a choreographer, you're basically movement directing." The job title is loose at best, but Goodwin, who has movement directed multiple Wiederhoeft fashion shows since the two met in 2019, summarizes the concept as articulating the show's feeling for the models.
For Jackson Wiederhoeft's Fall '23 collection, the designer's first look, a bride in a hoop skirt and corseted bodice, strode into the center of the Mulberry Youth Center carrying a bouquet of feathers. Throughout his procession, the dancer-meets-model would pause to stare into the audience, then dip slightly and extend a forlorn hand out behind him in a ballerina motion. Jerky movements followed to entice the audience to question the whimsy of it all. "Jackson has a lot of corsets in their collections," Goodwin explains, "so that means that certain movements aren't going to work in the garments."
The Wiederhoeft fashion show at the Mulberry Youth Center in New York;
Photo: @stolenbesos; Courtesy of Wiederhoft
"Personally, I just love to have as much information as possible before we start working," Goodwin continues. "I like to see the fabrics, I like to see the shapes of the designs... I need to know usually what's going to be worn by the dancers because that's going to [influence] the movement that I make for them." Ahead of each show, Goodwin sits down with Wiederhoeft to parse through the theme of the collection at hand. "There's a board in their office that I always take a photo of at the beginning of each collection because it's covered in visual references and pieces of fabric and sketches and poems and words and text." From there, the two start throwing references at each other.
"Sometimes I'm sending music, sometimes I'm sending dance pieces that I liked in school, [snippets] of dance history. Or Jackson will send me clips from The Red Shoes." Other times it's less specific, as Goodwin loosely translates a feeling of Wiederhoeft's rather than a physical reference into movement. Aligning on a like sentiment, Goodwin explains, is actually more important than crafting the perfect movement.
Goodwin has formal training as a dancer. He attended Julliard, began performing in theatrical experience Sleep No More, has since worked in Fiddler on the Roof on Broadway, and even made a cameo in Tick, Tick Boom. Now, his resume is more diverse—freelance jobs spanning dancing, acting, directing, and more along with a growing social media presence. In this realm of runway movement direction, he's working under interesting new circumstances, some freeing, some not so much. "I was surprised at how short it is. Because you're like, Wait. It's 11 minutes and if it doesn't work out the way that people want it to, then that's it."
Austin Goodwin leads models and dancers in rehearsal ahead of the show;
Photo: Sarah Lou Kiernan
"I don't want it to be stressful. But certainly, there's a level of execution that we want to have," the director continues. In the middle of the show, a pair of dancer-models descend onto center stage. One, clad in a shirt emblazoned with the sparkly phrase "Say No to Drugs," hoists the other, in a slinky white dress, into the air. The audience pauses, even though they knew not to expect the traditional runway experience. Suddenly, there's a story that goes beyond that of a line of clothing.
Goodwin is captivated by the fantasy of it all. "[Movement] elevates the experience and the vision and the feeling that people are left with when the show finishes." The goal is still to present a new collection, but hopefully in a way that makes the audience think. "We might have narrative influences, but ultimately they exist within a runway show." In lieu of the traditional finale procession, models create a circle around the initial bride, as the elements of dance and fashion collide. Yet somehow, the menagerie of fashion still manages to preside. "The abstraction of whatever's going to happen and the way it's interpreted is all over the board. I love that because someone might leave, saying, 'Oh, I felt like it was about this and this and this.' And someone might also say, 'I didn't know what it was about, but I like the way it felt.' Or, 'It made me cry.'" Goodwin muses, "I mean, as long as Jackson's happy, then I'm happy." In Goodwin's eyes, the movement is simply an extension of the fashion.