An exhibition of photographic portraits of dancers by Rick Guest, with Olivia Pomp
Later this month, noted dance photographer Rick Guest will present his second exhibition of dancers at the Hospital Club Gallery in Covent Garden.
Together with long-time collaborator and international stylist Olivia Pomp, Guest aims to explore the supreme spirit and convey the physicality that underpins a dancer’s art. They couple seek to strip away the external layers of costume, role and performance to reveal the character of the dancers themselves as reflected in their whole bodies. The photographs may be stills, but as in Guests’s previous exhibition they exude an energy and power.
All the photographs show the dancers in practice dress that in a way provides an insight into the mind of the individual pictured. Some clothes are purely functional, but some are clearly a small piece of self-expression in an art form that can often be an otherwise uniform ensemble act. Some of the clothing can even be seen as talismanic; still worn, despite having all but fallen apart.
Among the dancers featured in the exhibition are Edward Watson, Tamara Rojo, Steven McRae, Marianela Nuñez, Alban Lendorf, Zenaida Yanowsky, Melissa Hamilton, along with others from English National Ballet, The Royal Ballet, Semperoper Ballett, Wayne McGregor|Random Dance, Richard Alston Company and the Royal Danish Ballet.
All the art pieces on show are in a limited edition of six and will be for sale. The exhibition will have an accompanying book featuring many more images from the series, with an essay by Sarah Crompton.
What Lies Beneath is at the Hospital Club Gallery, 24 Endell St, London from January 22-31 For directions and more detail, visit www.thehospitalclub.com.
A large-format publication containing an extended edit of images, the book is available from www.rg-books.com, price £50.