“…painting affords the dancers a stronger feel for the role and the character they are playing. What they have is no longer a mask. It is a new skin. The art of body painting means that we are able to become, for a moment, something, or someone, else…I love watching how the dancers, seeing their transformed faces in the mirror, begin to seek new forms of movement and dance and new poses as they endeavor to adapt to their new skin.” — Agnieszka Glińska
The recent issue of Make Up International magazine from Kryolan Professional Make-up contained an article on a beautiful book of body art from the bodypainting dance company Art Color Ballet of Poland. The book, titled “Art_Color_Ballet”, is available in the U.S. from retailers who carry Kryolan make-up. I got my copy at the FABAIC convention last May, and I treasure it. It is full of stunning fine art photographs of painted bodies in juxtaposition with painted canvases as well as photographs of bodies in motion in their dance performances.
I have only been fortunate enough to see Art Color Ballet in performance once, with the championship winning piece in the UV Competition at the 2009 World Bodypainting Festival in Austria. At that festival I did get to speak briefly with their founder, Agnieszka Glińska, at a time when she wasn’t busy painting. I told her that I take great inspiration from the work her company does—from the very idea of forming a dance company in which bodypainting is such an integral part—and she was gracious enough to take a look at a video of the Nuba Bird dance piece with my bodypainting designs. She also gave me a small print of one of their fine art bodypaintings, and I was excited to see that it is the one they’ve now used for the cover of the book (above).
You can find information and videos on their website: http://www.baletcolor.pl/?lng=en You can also find additional videos on You Tube
“The human body has also proved to be an inspiration. From the dawn of humanity, it has fascinated artists. In its very self, it is an expression of time and time’s transience. At first innocent and virgin, then erogenic and arousing, so as finally to intrigue in its atrophy and departing. In its complexion, smoothness and, with time, its patina, the shell in which we are clad sends forth a mysterious message as to our presence here on earth. In movement, the body speaks of its vitality; when we cover it in color, its eloquence will be all the greater.” –Leszek Madzik, from the introduction to Art_Color_Ballet
My snapshot of Art Color Ballet in performance at the 2009 WBF
