Dancing in the Dark

Dancing in the Dark is a continuation of Beverly Rhodes’ recent body of work Dancing to Remember, Dancing to Forget in which a solitary dancer, not young and not expert, performs alone in an uncluttered room.

“Lost to memory or emotion, she moves her body to an unheard rhythm, sweeping and bending in a physical, intuitive response to personal thought and recalled experience”[i]

While the ideas of modern dance innovator Pina Bausch continue to influence Beverly’s work, the paintings in this exhibition are also informed by the Japanese form of modern dance known as Butoh.

As Masaki Iwana explains Butoh is not just about movement but also the drawing out of the dancer’s ‘inner landscape’ (an individual’s unique combination of dreams, memories and desires) which become one with the movement.

[i] City Art Depot, Christchurch. 2016.