Dance Out is an exhibition of paintings, drawings and film that celebrates dance as an everyday human activity, both solitary and social. The RWA itself will shape-shift during the exhibition, with the main daylit galleries hosting a series of dance and dance-related events.

Dance Out is co-curated by David Remfry RA, with James Russell. Opening with paintings of dancers and nightclub life created by Remfry in London and New York, the RWA galleries offer a spectacular setting for large-scale and rarely seen works by painters Denzil Forrester and Paul Dash. In short films Tracey Emin, and others, give intimate insights into the place of dance in their lives and in the urban landscape. In a new immersive installation, artist Melanie Manchot shows a film ‘Dance the Night Away’ made in Bristol with local dancers and commissioned by the RWA for this exhibition.

With many night clubs and music venues struggling since Covid, this is a timely, celebratory exhibition. Like dance culture itself, Dance Out crosses boundaries, blurring distinctions between the personal and the social as it does between media and between genres.