dance art journal

Words by Isabelle Enquist. Sound, or rather the perception of sound, is dependent on time and distance both in its physicality and its retention. Memory, as an archive of sound, behaves in similar ways. To record a sound is to take it out of context, away from the circumstances in which it was first heard, apart from the bodies and spaces that created it, never to be faithful...

Words by Luella Rebbeck. Entering Wapping Hydraulic Power Station as part of Somerset House Studios 3 Evenings felt like stepping into a deserted office space hijacked by the future. The cavernous power station, with its concrete slabs, towering ceilings and imposing machinery, had been transformed into a futuristic hall of glory. Robot greeters welcomed us into a dark...

Words by Georgia Howlett. The Barbican’s Pit theatre is a black box. A large upstage screen speaks to us to start the piece, Dance is Not for Us, a solo work by Lebanese choreographer, festival director and cultural architect, Omar Rajeh. The text that appears brings awareness to the present moment, to the collision of events that occurred for us to all be here at a Dance Umb...

Established in 2006 and celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, icandance is a UK charity that works across Greater London to bring dance classes to young people who otherwise might not experience dance in mainstream settings. We sat down with the founder and CEO Juliet Diener to discuss access, the importance of charity funding and how disability helps create a better wo...

Words by Gus Hodgson. Erwin Olaf’s photographs of ballet dancers aren’t what you’d expect. There’s a whole subgenre of photography capturing ballet dancers with its own norms and stylistic conventions: dancers in technically demanding positions but with a sense of ease; they are graceful and beautiful, almost superhuman. You can trace the lineage of this aesthetic, past Degas...