Kendall Anna Swendsen
Kendall Anna was raised in Houston, Texas and first started sewing at the age of seven making pillows, gifts, and dresses for herself and others on her step mother’s sewing machine. She grew up dancing from a young age, mostly enjoying tap and jazz. After leaving her love for dancing behind in high school, she made her first tutu with the incredible Nina Reed in the Fall of 2018. It is during this semester that she found a new passion within sewing. In the Fall of 2019, she did a semester long internship at Halsey Onstage, a predominately dance based Costume Production company, where she worked for the brilliant Travis Halsey. She hopes to honor his memory by opening up her own business in the future. She graduated in May of 2021 with her BFA in Costume Construction from The Sargent Conservatory of Theatre Arts at Webster University where she received Magna Cum Laude Honors. She has spent the last three summers at the Santa Fe Opera working her way up quickly from Stitching Apprentice to most recently First Hand. Kendall Anna is in her final year of graduate school where she is to receive her MFA in Costume Production at Carnegie Mellon University. At Carnegie Mellon, she is a recipient of the Bes Kimberly Fellowship as well as the Frank-Ratchye Further Fund Grant. She enjoys couture hand sewing, delicate machine work, intricate hand worked beading, and all things dance wear, especially classical techniques of tutu making. Post graduation, she plans to move to New York and fulfill dreams of working on extravagant costumes for all forms of theater, opera, and dance.
Photo Credit: Louis Stein
Currently at Carnegie Mellon!
Fall 2019
Internship at Halsey Onstage
May 2021
Graduated with BFA in Costume Construction from The Conservatory of Theatre Arts at Webster University
*Magna Cum Laude Honors
Summer 2023
First Hand at the Santa Fe Opera
Spring 2024
Graduated with MFA Costume Production from Carnegie Mellon University
*Bes Kimberly Fellowship Recipient
Frank Ratchye Further Fund Grant Recipient