On the first floor tenement annexe at the Market square 34, a crowd of art painters, photographers and male, female models gathers. It happens so when each Wednesday when there is a photo session in Art Color Ballet It is the only ballet formation in Poland connecting contemporary dance with body painting art - dancers' bodies are covered with artistic imaginative paintings. The company has been in existence since 1998 r. Its first debut was in "Jazz Rock Cafe" club. It was received with real enthusiasm, but is seldom performs it its home city. It performs in theatres and four different community centres, at open air events, film premieres. It has its own school of dance, and all that invites to body painting workshops for amateurs in September.
Art Color Ballet presented itself successfully abroad during Krakow and Małopolska days in London . On of the greatest achievements of the company was the third award won in 2003 at the World Body Painting Festival in Austria - the biggest such type of event in the world. Festival, organized at the end of July every year, has a different leading motive each time; in 2004 these were 'myths, legends' and 'water', in 2005 'music world' and 'cartoon'. Participants compete in three categories: airbrush, sponge - brush and special effects. Last year there were just 70 groups in the competition 'sponge - brush'.
Jury evaluates compatibility of work done with given task and creativity. Not only big is the motivation but also prestige. The possibility of learning new trends and techniques is vital as well. There are more and more sources of inspiration every year taken from art painting, fashion shows, trips to exotic spots - elements of Eastern culture are on the go off late.
Body painting is always accompanied by music during Body Painting Festivity in Austria . But only Art Color Ballet completes its programme with 20 - minute dance performance, thanks to which it is very easily recognised among other companies.
Why 20 - minute show? The answer is easy: because the effect of body painting is as intriguing as short - term. After a short period of time, oil exposed to warmth and sweat starts to fade away inevitably...
- Once we tried to dance for 40 minutes. We used as much fixative as we could. Everything for nothing! At one moment everything started to trickle down from one of the dancers. We had to improvise in order to make the ending look as planned - says Agnieszka Glińska, founder of Art Color Ballet (6years in Contemporary Dance Forms, choreographer, dancer and dance teacher, lecturer of body painting technique at the Cosmetics School )
It is time to start the preparations for photo session. On the floor there are oils prepared, brushes and buckets with water. All these accessories are necessary to make a painting by sponge - brush technique, which is Art Color Ballet's favourite one. There are also other techniques: airbrush - shower method, by which an oil is put on with aerograph and also technique 'special effects' applied by film makers (expensive and laborious one), this method lies in the fact of gluing latex sponges, covered with oil later on. In this way you can completely change a body, make look it older, miring it by putting very realistic scars and wounds on..
The walls of Art Color Ballet office are decorated with posters presenting the effects of body painting art, various its inspirations and techniques. On one of the paintings a female model decorated with fanciful patterns perfectly blends into the scenery of seemingly patterned canvas. This technique is mimicry, symbiosis, body painting with traditional art painting. There other photos, in which the element of scenography is a skirt, cloaks made of Lycra, cooperating with colouring and body painting. It gives an effect of certain lightness, surrealistic phenomenon of reality and dream borderland.
Body painting has a lot to, do with usable styling, but in fact it more resembles traditional art painting that lets unleash artist's feelings. Some are trying to find its roots in old time's ritual tribes. Warriors, wizards painted their bodies to arouse fear, respect or to be able to build a relation with ghosts of ancestors. Through rituality body painting gained both magic and symbolic character. There can be visible a relationship between the art of painting and habits of baroque époque.
However according to Agnieszka Glińska detecting the origins of contemporary body painting in so foreign an époque is a bit of an exaggeration.
- Body painting was first of all created for theatre, symphony hall and ballet needs. Thanks to suitable painting of the body, figures could be portrayed in a more suggestive way, which undeniably stimulated audience's imagination. Then this element began to be used in fashion shows, adverts and shot sessions.
What a perfect body painting model should look like? It is hard to find greater resemblance among those models who take part in today's session, ones are tall, and others are small. It is said that height does not matter, but shapely silhouette does. There is a rule: one model - one artist helped by an assistant sometimes. A year ago at the Festival in Austria Agnieszka Glińska painted others and was painted herself. Such practices are rather rarely applied because it takes more time to make the work of art complete.
First hair is done. Hairstyle should be compatible with the idea of a painting. It should be its extension. Now it is time of body decoration. Painters very precisely with the use of fingers and sponge put a foundation cream. Next they spread a very thin layer of paint, which softens under an influence of lukewarm water and natural warmth of a body.
There are many different types of paint - fatty, water, brocade and fluorescent - but they all have a common feature - a very high price.
Some artists have ready made painting projects with themselves, other are able to have only a
well - remembered picture in the mind. How to work up an idea?
- Variously -says one of the painters, graduate of Academy of Fine Arts . I use a special computer program for this aim. It is much easier this way for I can modify every detail. But there are painters who prefer creating projects by hand; it is up to an individual.
Someone good at easel painting is not necessarily good at body painting.
They do last corrections; they sprinkle paintings with spray cementing a make - up. Done. But, why move so strangely? It is because every touch of one leg by the other or unintentional scratch threatens with paint rip off. They cannot even seat down despite 6 - hour standing potion. Not everyone is able to stand it. Those who are not patient enough are not given another chance....
Now shot session starts. Male and female models correct their poses to those previously established. Light hits the convenient spots; none of the shadows is random. Shots are taken by Wacław Wantuch, favorite photographer of the ballet group. Some of the photos taken today will be used in the album of Art Color Ballet, which will soon be on sale in bookshops.
Now the time to take a breath came. All shots taken, paint can be removed from everywhere not forgetting about ears and mouth corners. It was just enough to change the technique from 'sponge - soap' and the effect of long - hour work disappears irreparably...
MAGDALENA HOROSIN
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