At the Laban Dance Centre

How do you draw something that doesn’t stay still? With difficulty. Visiting the Laban Centre, I was lucky enough to spend an entire day drawing contemporary dance students. I found myself in improvised sessions, so with no set routine there was no choice but to look out for key moments and take mental snapshots, or just let the pencil flow and jump, turn and skip as the dancers did. Even more tricky was when the students paired-up, working closely twisting around each other, reacting and responding to the other’s movements. But this is why I love trying to draw movement  above the stillness of the life drawing room, its impossible not to be caught up in the speed and momentum of the subject and, aided by music, I find myseld drawing at speed trying to catch up with them. By the end of the day I’d drawn over 150 sqiggly figures. Here’s a selection…

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