posted July 23, 2001 23:41            

Retrospective 20 Years of Dance Photography by CHRIS NASH

The Royal National Theatre's Lyttelton Foyer 5th September - 27th October 2001

To celebrate twenty years of Dance Photography, Chris Nash will exhibit what can only be described as a portrait of the British dance world during one of its most exciting and innovative periods.

Chris Nash needs no introduction to Contemporary Dance Audiences. His photographs have been used to publicise the work of almost every major (and most minor) dance companies over the last 15 years. This exhibition, consisting of over 200 beautifully printed colour and B & W prints, looks back at a prolific career that has spanned 20 years.

His work is marked by a rare ability to explore graphically the intentions of dancers and choreographers, usually before the dance has been fully conceived. Advance publicity deadlines mean that Nash is rarely able to photograph a finished piece, and he has developed a technique of improvisation, which grows from discussions with his subjects and often draws on his early training as a sculptor. The resulting images are as far removed from the standard dance photograph as the dance works themselves are from traditional ballet. Using a roll of background paper as his own "stage", Nash is able to work with dancers at isolating a gesture or movement that may find its place in the finished dance. In addition, he has used his sculptural experience to create striking compositions and to make collaged images that connect stylistically with individual dancers and companies. In these ways, Nash has made a virtue of his enforced inability merely to document a given performance.

One of his most celebrated early works, for example, depicts Lea Anderson's troupe The Cholmondeleys, their bodies replaced by blown-up images of hands with fingers representing their dancing legs. Such witty representations of choreographic style led the dance critic Judith Mackrell to write: "From the beginning, Nash has not been interested in simply recording 'the perfect moment' in dance, but in trying to get inside the style and sub-text of the whole work. The way he splices together images to create collages or surreal effects…and the way he lights and positions his dancers, often gives off powerful suggestions of plot and meaning."

Today, with more than 40 exhibitions of his dance photographs to his credit, Chris Nash is securely established as the pre-eminent photographer in his field. His work has had such an impact on contemporary dance in this country that he is the recipient of a Dance Umbrella/Time Out Award bearing the inscription: "For helping to make the face of dance more recognisable, this award is made to photographer extraordinaire Chris Nash." Two major touring exhibitions of Nash's work, "A Glance at the Toes" and "stopMotion" (organised by the British Council) have helped give him an international profile. Most recently, he has created "Assemblage", a massive collaged portrait of 100 classical and contemporary dancers united in a highly complex choreographed moment, as a commission for the Royal Opera House's Back Garden Project.

To accompany the stopMotion retrospective Chris Nash is collaborating with projections designer Dick Straker to produce a video installation titled Transformer which will be projected onto the Lyttelton Theatre flytower.

Lyttelton Foyer NT Royal National Theatre South Bank London SE1 9PX 27th August - 27th October 2001

Dance Umbrella mid October - mid November 2001 (additional info to follow)

For further press information please contact: Jemma Gibb - 020 7452 3231 - jgibb@nationaltheatre.org.uk Nicky Akehurst - 020 8969 0453 - NickyAkehurst@aol.com