Gina Beard was moments away from strutting onto a runway costumed as an elegant white dragon that wouldn’t look out of place in an animated fantasy film by Hayao Miyazaki.

Right now, though, she was doing “the Bernie.”

The papier mache head swiveled as Beard — head back, arms flailing — did the dance inspired by the dead titular character of the 1989 comedy “Weekend At Bernie’s.”

The silliness helped to relieve the tension being felt backstage ahead of Saturday night’s Battelle Costume Couture Fashion Show, the main event of HighBall Halloween, a two-day costume party in the Short North. As the hosts — drag queen Nina West and NBC anchor Monica Day — entertained a boisterous crowd at the Greater Columbus Convention Center with witty banter, a wave of uncertainty and nerves punctuated the area where designers and models began to line up.

After all, for designers such as Ira Tecson and Lauren Primm, the team behind Beard’s dragon, this was the culmination of two months of hard work.

The duo had spent many long nights in Tecson’s Clintonville home fitting models and tweaking details in their collection — three ready-to-wear outfits and the extravagant 8-foot-tall, 9-foot-long dragon. Even on the day of the show, the pair labored for hours in a fluorescent-lit room at the convention center, making last-minute adjustments.

Now, the big moment had finally arrived.

“It is the culmination of all the hard work we’ve put into it,” said Primm, who lives in Reynoldsburg. “You want to send out the best version you can.”

Tecson, 35, and Primm, 33, first met several years ago while working at an area costume shop. They have since partnered for six HighBall fashion shows, each bringing a distinct skill set and background — Tecson in industrial design and sculpture; Primm in traditional fashion design — that they say elevates their creations.

“We have good strengths that complement each other,” said Primm, a technical designer for a tween fashion brand.

Together they have made a name for themselves at the competition, placing in the top three multiple times and winning in 2017 with the “Maiden Voyage” collection, which featured a 9-foot-tall boat costume complete with cascading waves.

“They’re both very talented people in two very different realms,” said Stephanie Stein, the fashion show’s coordinator.

Betsy Pandora, executive director of the Short North Alliance, which produces HighBall, praised the theatricality and sophistication of the designs the duo brings to the stage.

“It’s incredibly thoughtful, and it feels like they’re breaking the laws of physics and science when they make work for HighBall,” Pandora said.

The concept for their collection this year was heavily influenced by East Asian culture and mythology.

Tecson, who was born in the Philippines, constructed the dragon with a hodgepodge of materials. The whiskers were made from wire wrapped in white ribbon; the blue clouds on which the dragon glided were made from upholstery foam coated in acrylic.

The dragon’s body was affixed to a mover’s dolly, and Beard carried in her “clawed” hands a purple glowing orb, said in Chinese mythology to house the soul.

Primm designed the ready-to-wear outfits to resemble the monochromatic attire of female warriors sent to battle the dragon terrorizing their lands. She layered the designs with fictional details of past triumphs, including, for instance, the pelt of another slain creature.

Tecson and Primm’s designs were the sixth to be displayed — out of eight total entries — on the stage inside the convention center. Afterward, the relief they felt was palpable as they and their models shared laughs.

“You did so good!” a jumping Tecson said to Beard.

But when the jumping was over, it was time for more dancing: Primm and Tecson were announced this year’s winners, and they joined with Beard — still in costume — for an impromptu rendition of “the Bernie,” this time on stage.

Consider it one more dragon slayed.

elagatta@dispatch.com

@EricLagatta