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JUMP - NORTHERN BALLET THEATRE, LEEDS, 2011

JUMP

NORTHERN BALLET THEATRE, LEEDS, 2011

The 33m long x 4m high glass side to the new Northern Ballet building is screen printed with images taken from a filming session with two of the Principal Dancers. The images were transformed into a combination of stills and animated images to create one enormous panel of stillness and movement. The coded images create cameos of moving figures. Silhouetted dancers are warming up or jumping as people walk past the window. When somebody stops walking, so the animation in the glass also stops. The screen printing is within the double glazed units.

Winner the National Lottery Best Arts Project Award.

Concept

The idea here was to create a dynamic glass wall that captured the vibrancy of the Northern Ballet. I used the idea of a zoetrope to create animation – but instead of a cylindrical format, I flattened out the design and the animation is created by walking by the glass. The figures spring to life or do warm up exercises and then stop as people walking past stop.

I took a series of sequential photographs of two of the Principal Dancers which were then used to make the animated figures.