Dance simply cannot exist without a body, so who better to approach for this exhibition than a sculptor fascinated with the human form? Meet Anna Gillespie, RWA Academician, and curator of The Human Dance: 
 

Hi Anna, you curated The Human Dance, our new Kenny Gallery exhibition. Can you tell us how you approached exploring dance as a theme? 

I’m interested in dance as an expression of real human life experiences.  Dance for dance’s sake is one of these experiences and the pure joy of this is expressed in Debbie Locke’s work where she asked various friends to dance to a track of their choice with a dance ‘machine’ on their backs which records their movements through a system of hanging pens dangling on to paper. Lidija Antanasijević’s work deals with the painful experience of being a refugee, Yvonne Crossley’s with the aging process, Tim Shaw’s with ritual loss of control and my own with human displacement in a form inspired by one of Crystal Pite’s dance work called Flight Pattern. 

The exhibition includes works by Lidija Antanasijević RWA, Yvonne Crossley RWA, Debbie Locke RWA and Tim Shaw RA, RWA (Hon). What was it about these artists that felt like a good fit? 

Approached to curate to the theme of dance, I looked into these artists’ works and became entranced by the ‘cross-overs’ I could see between our works.  The linear nature of Debbie’s line drawings, for example, echoes both Yvonne’s ‘drawn’ sculptural wire and the etched marks on Lidija’s prints.  The red in Tim’s print is echoed both in Lidija’s prints and in Yvonne’s traces of red in her Octogenarian Dance. Then there is the very direct connect between Lidija’s lived experience of being a refugee and my piece Flight which is about human displacement.  The free and mythic movements depicted in both the sculptures and the print strangely seem to link with the wildness of the dance portrayed by Debbie’s drawings and the non-formal movement depicted by Yvonne. 

Your sculpture, Flight (2026)  is a powerful centrepiece to the exhibition. Can you tell us about your interpretation of the theme from an artist’s perspective? 

Since reading the Diary of Anne Frank as a young teenager I have always wondered if I would be brave enough to leave my country, home and family if I had to. I’m also fascinated, politically, by how little it takes to recognise a fellow human being as just that rather than dismiss them at first glance.  I was therefore totally mesmerised when I saw the Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite’s dance work Flight Pattern about human displacement.  It spoke to me so directly.  These works have a big ‘cast’ with almost no sense of a lead role – the ‘chorus’ moves as one at times and yet also sometimes separates out individuals from the crowd.  

With the figures in Flight I am continuing to explore how little it takes to represent a human whilst still holding on to what is beautiful and fascinating about the human body and depict a sense of being ‘embodied’.  My figures are slowly moving away from being ‘mass’ towards almost having some elements of a simple ‘drawn’ line.   

The exhibition seems to explore dance beyond movement – what role does the materials you use play? 

For my work Flight I’ve used plaster which is the material I’ve been exploring for a couple of years now.  Often dismissed as a mere ‘studio’ material – even Rodin was fighting against this a hundred years ago – it’s fantastic to work in precisely because it is so cheap.  This ‘arte povera’ approach allows the freedom of experimentation and risk in the studio which is what I’m really seeking at this point after years of working in bronze.  The simple nature of plaster also seems in keeping with the theme of displacement and for me also echoes the grey of the dancers’ costumes in Pite’s works on these themes. The ‘found’ boots are also very important to me.  Boots give the figures the status of not being classical ‘nudes’ despite the element of life casting.  As I made these pieces especially for The Human Dance exhibition, I was very conscious that ‘dancers’ tend to avoid wearing hard footwear like this.  However, the work is about human displacement, and footwear is key to walking across distances and borders.  So again, the material here is important to my intention of exploring dance beyond just simple exploration of movement into the realms of wider human experience.   

You can see The Human Dance in the Kenny Gallery until 21 June 2026. Entry is free for all.

Join Lidija Antanasijević, Yvonne Crossley, Anna Gillespie and Debbie Locke on Saturday 30 May for a free 'meet the artist'. Booking not required.

Images: Alastair Brookes/KoLAB Studios