From the 2003 exhibition press release, Dance Lines: Photographs by Stuart Allen. Courtesy Crocker Art Museum.
Dance Lines is a series of black and white photographs made on-site in the Grand Ballroom of Sacramento, California’s Crocker Art Museum. Building on the artist’s previous investigations of time-based motion, Night Lines (1997 – 1998) and Studio Lines (2000 – 2001), Dance Lines documents the intricate movement of dancers as they perform before the camera.
Using a distinctly photographic device – the light trail produced by a moving light during a long exposure – the artist has recorded maps or diagrams of various dance forms on film. Though not a dancer himself, Allen has worked with specialists in a variety of disciplines, from ballet to swing, to determine the most effective sequence of moves for each image.
For more information about this series, please click here for an essay by curator Scott Shields, and here for an essay by critic Meredith Goldsmith.
