Dancing museums
An exhibition with a modern-day, contemporary dance infused twist. Not exactly what you’d expect from a mundane art gallery experience in the National Gallery, London.
Imagine gazing at Annibale Carracci’s most celebrated easel painting, “The Holy Family With The Infant Saint John The Baptist’ with all of your body weight resting on just one dancers’ supporting shoulder.
That would’ve been a reality, if you were present at Dancing Museums event, held at the iconic National Gallery, November 12th and 13th. Like various events and exhibitions that take place in the gallery, the event was free and open to any curious members of the public.
Dancing Museums are a partnership of five European dance organizations who invented the innovative idea of fusing movement with art, their ultimate aim being, ‘To give audiences a new and artistic way to study paintings,’ says artistic director, Betsy Gregory.
A project still new in its entirety, the group have plans to tour internationally renowned art museums around the UK and Europe, working with a dancer from each organisation — The National Gallery was this winter’s venue.
The main show consisted of two contemporary dancers, and two sketch artists who peacefully, but not unnoticeably, segregated and revealed themselves from the crowd in the middle of the renaissance exhibition room, sating the patience of those who were initially searching for the act.
After the artists had set up their minimalist equipment, one female dancer brought the attention of passers-by, by beginning to dance slowly in front of the sketchers, as if moving through molasses. She was clad in a vibrant 80’s style blue jumpsuit and blue trainers; a contrast to the early historic décor and artefacts of the museum.
After approximately twenty minutes of displaying dynamic contemporary dance movement set to her own pace, without any supporting music, and a collection of creative, emotive-based sketches had been produced, a male dancer in a fitting bodysuit took her place, displaying movements of a similar nature.
During the unveiling of the main project, two undercover dancers strolled around the museum rooms, searching for willing participates to partake in their experiment, which involved partnering someone with a dancer, who would instruct you to push them, let them push you, and to eventually drop all of your body weight onto a body part of theirs. All the while, you were asked to describe what details of any portrait visible, speaks out to you.
I myself was spotted and grabbed by a dancer, and found the venture to be bizarre, fun, surprisingly strenuous, but different. I did find that I started to view the paintings in a different light compared to when I glanced at them at my own leisurely pace; then again, I’m not accustomed to staring at paintings during an activity akin to a ‘tug of war’ match. However, it definitely wasn’t an unpleasant experience, if anything, eye-opening.
If you’re interested in psychically experiencing two pre-historic art forms combined, in the style of Dancing Museums, you can still catch them for the next two years in venues around Europe and London UK, the next city will be in Virty-sue-Seine, Paris, 26 March.
Here is the link to my video review -
