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ART
GALLERY 4 - DRAWINGS.
In January of 2008 the Syren Modern Dance Company graciously extended an invitation to selected members of the Art Students League to attend several of their dance rehearsals as they worked on a new production inspired by the music and history of ancient Egypt. The resulting artwork was then displayed in the theatre's lobby during performances of the company as they premiered "Dig". This brilliant work, choreographed by Kate Mehan, used choral excerpts from Handel's "Israel in Egypt" as well as evocative selections of Egyptian music and percussion to create a dance landscape of wide emotional range and dramatic imagery.
As a student at the League, I jumped at the chance to participate in this project because the major inspiration of my painted images was already music, and dance seemed to be the perfect intermediary between these two art forms, since the dancers' bodies gave visual form to the rhythms and colors of the music.
As an abstractionist, I was not interested in a realistic depiction of the human body. Instead, I wanted to capture the feel of a gesture, the way a body arched and stretched and the way that this felt when the move was at its peak. I also wanted to convey the manner in which dancers spatially and emotionally related to each other in acting out various narratives. I had studied jazz dancing myself for several years, and this made it easier for me to understand and access the tensions and releases of many of the moves and the emotional content that gave them a narrative continuity. I hope that the visitors to this site will enjoy these drawings as much as I enjoyed creating them.
Click on individual images to enlarge
them.
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