I have been building a new relationship between English National Ballet and The City Lit to run short courses both at the studio and at Sadlers Wells when the ballet company are in residence. These take the form of a lecture to contexualise the commonalities between dynamic drawnig and dance, practical strategies for drawing the figure in movement and a ‘live’ drawing session in the empty theatre, observing the dancers in company class on stage. We then follow this up with gallery visits for visual research including the British Museum for cultural/historic contexts eg the Indian temple dancers in stone relief, the ancient Greek sculptures and vase friezes. Finally, we make studio-based work exploring mixed media responses to the sketchbook raw material.
There has been some fantastic work and the students have loved this unique opportunity to get ‘up close and raw’ with professional dancers ‘behind the scenes’.
There will be further City Lit courses coming up in September at Sadlers Wells and in December at The Coliseum. I am on tour with English National Ballet around the UK in the Autumn.
