The Power of Dance
/Ezgi Zaman, Dance Allegory, Digital painting, April 2021
Today is international dance day and I wanted to mark it with something special celebrating someone who, both in dance and spirit, I am truly inspired by.
Before lockdown I was dancing several times a week but over the course of the last year, dance gradually became an absent friend. That is, until I signed up for Ezgi Zaman’s zoom classes a few weeks ago.
Since then I have rediscovered what joy and magic dancing can bring, especially when guided by Ezgi’s amazing energy and warmth.
Her classes are as much a lesson in dance philosophy as technique, creating a space to talk about the roots of salsa and our experiences of it. It was one of these conversations that triggered the idea for this painting. Namely how dance helps us to wind back the clock to our childhood when movement is uninhibited and a fully integrated part of our self-expression.
Ezgi says it beautifully (to visit Ezgi’s instagram page CLICK HERE):
Dance is a way to understand who we are! It's not for success in society! It's just a way to find peace in our souls and with all lives around us!
Dancing is not movement which is well matched to the music; dancing becomes real when you take the music out from your body, the melody from your heart always tells the truth.
You can see these thoughts in shining life when you watch Ezgi dance.
In an attempt to capture this spirit, I used a freeze frame of her dancing as my reference point. As such I had to keep my brush strokes much looser, as the detail was out of focus. It was the overall energy and gesture that I was looking at. The background design is very much rooted in this energy and the ideas Ezgi’s dancing and teaching inspired in me.
Watch the timelapse below to see how this painting evolved.
