Two dancers 1924

Zinaida Serebriakova made this pastel drawing of dancers, a symphony in blue, white and beige. I bet Serebriakova stood there, charcoal and pastel in hand, watching these figures in their backstage world. I can imagine her, capturing the tilt of a head or the curve of a back. Look at the dancer adjusting her hair – you can almost feel the weight of her arm, the tension in her shoulder. It’s not about perfect representation, it’s about sensation, about feeling. The pastel marks are light and airy, catching the fleeting moments between practice and performance. There are echoes of Degas, of course, but Serebriakova brings her own sensibility, a certain intimacy. Artists are always having conversations with each other across time, picking up ideas, riffing on them, making them their own. They leave plenty of space for us to bring our own experiences to the work, to get lost in the image and find something new each time.