The Dance c. 1945

Curator: Edgar Britton created this striking woodcut, "The Dance," around 1945. What’s your initial reaction to it? Editor: Energetic! The stark lines, that contrasting blue, and those angular figures...it feels both ancient and utterly modern at once. I almost want to move when I look at it! Curator: Exactly! Britton uses this incredibly bold linear style that echoes abstract expressionism. And note how the figures almost meld into one another. There is an ambiguous reading in those bodies. Editor: Yes, you know I instantly see the connection to queer dance culture, that club ecstasy when bodies become this shapeless mass...a joyous confusion and loss of individual control... Curator: Ah, that's interesting. I hadn’t quite made that connection. The angularity of the figures reads a bit robotic to me, as if this were a mechanized ritual, not quite human, more about form. But queer interpretations make perfect sense, there is the collapse of boundaries… Editor: The backdrop with its repetitive marks suggests enclosure to me. But it could also be stylized brushstrokes giving movement and light to a contained performance, maybe. How do the identities and potential vulnerabilities of the dancers relate to the space they move within? Curator: Good question! It does make you consider ideas about belonging and alienation. What about this choice of such graphic lines? I think Britton almost denies any grace with the harshness. Editor: For me, it speaks to a particular type of queer performance. There's almost a punk sensibility to denying delicacy, of presenting a raw energy instead of prettiness. It defies expectation, I think. Curator: I love how an image from the '40s continues to bring fresh eyes to different understandings and new feelings. Editor: Absolutely, that dance may be still going on! The piece reminds us of the vibrant echoes of history that live inside every contemporary expression of dance.