Listening to dance

Dance is a visual language which is intimately entwined with emotions. The movement and shape of fingers, arms, legs and even toes can be used to express a variety of emotions.

In this project, I have attempted to illustrate music through the movements and expressions of dance. My images visualize both the effect that music has and what it means to me.

By capturing and combining particular movements photographically, I want to communicate the changing emotions and feelings of a particular piece of music so that these can be experience by people feel music without the sound.

I played a Danish songwriter Agnes Obel’s  ‘Riverside’ to the dancers. It has a classical and dreamlike quality. When I heard this music, it made me calm and evoked some idle fancies that gave me a very small but powerful energy.

I wanted to express these complex emotions through a very soft, warm  orange colour and small, powerful, slow, sad and bright movements.

I didn’t impose any limitations on the dancers - I wanted them to dance spontaneously to the music, which they heard it for first time at our studio  sessions.

I have grouped each set of images according to the movements within the music’s structure and intervals. Each 3 minute and 49 second sections of music is now combined into single images which have been composited together. I dedicate this project to my friend who cannot hear the music.


Multi exposure on Medium format film
Printed on Kodak Metallic paper