posted July 25, 2001 12:50            

Retrospective - 20 Years of Dance Photography by CHRIS NASH

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

‘Domestic Arrangements’ by S.O.A.P. Dance Company, Frankfurt 1993, Dancer- Ragnhild Olsen
Photo by Chris Nash

Ella Fattoumi, Paris 1991
Photo by Chris Nash

For 20 years the UK dance world has been very fortunate to have the services of Chris Nash as a look around his website will show:

http://www.ndirect.co.uk/~chrisnash/

His images are often startling, but a concern to make the dancers and the choreography look their best is always his priority. His work has had such an impact on contemporary dance in the UK 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."

Although he has worked successfully in advertising and with pop groups such as The Petshopboys and Jamiriquai, it is the impecunious dance world that has been the main beneficiary of his great talent. Yet, a few years ago, Chris felt the need to give something back to dance and in an exceptionally generous gesture, he donated an entire photo exhibition to a fund raising sale for The Place re-development fund. Two of these beautiful images hang on my wall as I write.

Chris Nash has written to me about, ‘...a forthcoming exhibition of my work to be hosted by the National Theatre as part of this years Dance Umbrella. The exhibition, 'stopMotion', will consist of around 200 photographs covering over 20 years of Contemporary Dance, featuring Companies and individual dancers from Europe and America. I will be selecting images from previous shows (A Glance At The Toes, Beyond Dance, Chris Nash Dance Photos and a new presentation of Assemblage) as well as presenting many new images.’

Fuller details of the exhibition are given in this Press Release.

Chris needs to raise several thousand pounds to help mount the exhibition. A number of us here on criticaldance are big fans of his work, so we have decided to sponsor the exhibition and are keen to involve our readership in this enterprise. Thus for each £ or $ that a reader donates to the exhibition fund, criticaldance will match the donation, up to a total of £500 (or around $700). We’d love to raise much more than that of course. All individual contributors will be credited in the programme notes.

If you would like to help, please contact me on:

stuart@criticaldance.com

posted August 06, 2001 01:29            

Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company 1998

Another startling image from Chris Nash. Thus far the criticaldance sponsorship for his stopMotion exhibition totals £400. Remember every £1 or $1 you donate will be matched by criticaldance to a total of £500. All donors wil be credited in the programme and receive an invitation to the opening ceremony. Contact me by e-mail if you would like to be part of this project:

stuart@criticaldance.com

posted August 18, 2001 03:32            

'Fractured Landscapes' Rosemary Butcher-choreographer
Holborn Studios London 1997

stopMotion

Retrospective 20 Years of Dance Photography by CHRIS NASH

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

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Not long to go now, before the start of the exhibition. If one (or more) criticaldance reader promises £50 then under our matching scheme, we will have raised £500 towards this great event.

If you are interested or want more information, please contact me at:

posted September 05, 2001 16:07            

What a collection, both colour and black and white photography. Nash seems to have a knack of really capturing dance expression and line of movement do precisely.

His later work uses some stunning vibrant colours that really jump out of the frame however the majority of my favourites came from his black and white pictures and particularly some of the shots of the Cholmondeleys (sp?). I loved the pictures where dancers heads were attached to other body parts, eg a hand to create the illusion of a complete body. So flawlessly joined I had to look twice to begin with.

It is an extremely entertaining exhibition. What really came through was the sense of pleasure obvioulsy gained by the photographer taking the shots and the dancers in them. A joy of dance and movement really shone through all the images, expecially the montage of dancers that greets you on the main wall.

Well worth a visit.

posted September 06, 2001 01:49            

Nash snaps reveal dance history

by Keith Watson in The Evening Standard

quote:

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Scanning down the list of dancers featured in this timely set of greatest snaps by peerless dance photographer Chris Nash is to gaze upon a Who’s Who of new British dance over the past two decades.

Anyone who is anyone has been given a career leg-up by one of Nash’s finely crafted choreographed studies.

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posted September 06, 2001 03:54            

Joanne has given a good description of the range of work on display, which combines state of the art digital processing with exquisite black and white images. But in amongst all this technical bravura it is always clear that Nash wants the dancers to look good or expressive in the context of the work they are performing.

One of the highlights is the panorama of 100 dancers which appeared at the ROH in a different format. This version works much better and many happy minutes can be spent working out who is who - Jenny Tattersal, Wendy Houston, Deborah Bull, Colin Poole and Angel Corella all rub shoulders. I was looking at the image of Akram Khan, turned round and there he was in the flesh having just returned from a dance festival in Finland.

The other reason for going to see the exhibition is for a trip down memory lane with some of the great modern dance artists from the UK and elsewhere who have enriched our lives over the past 20 years.

I will go 2 or 3 times - unmissable.

posted September 15, 2001 08:33            

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

posted September 18, 2001 23:47            

National Theatre, London
Rating: **** (out of 5)

Judith Mackrell in The Guardian

quote:

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Chris Nash took his first dance photograph in 1977. It was a year in which surprising numbers of amateur British enthusiasts were putting on legwarmers and heading for their nearest dance studio, and young UK choreographers were gaining heady confidence in their own art form. Since then Nash has become unofficial documentor of the British modern dance scene, and his current retrospective in the Lyttelton Theatre's foyer, StopMotion, is a lively, often beautiful record not only of his own talent but of the past 20 years of dance activity.

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more...

posted October 12, 2001 13:20            

And londondance.com now have some e-cards with Chris Nash images, so you can brighten someone's day. Top right is one of my favourites.

http://www.londondance.com/cards/step1.asp?cat_fldAuto=6

posted November 11, 2001 08:05            

All good things must come to an end and the wonderful stopMotion exhibition of images by Chris Nash closed at the end of October.
However, for those who did not get to see it, you can still buy the beautiful catalogue. The book consists of 37 high quality reproductions in colour and black & white, with an introduction by Val Bourne (Dance Umbrella Artistic Director) and contributions from the choreographers and dancers portrayed in the images. It is available by mail order in the UK by sending a cheque made out to Chris Nash for £12.50 and sent (with a return address) to: Fiat Lux 41, Royal Circus, London SE27 0BW and allowing 10 days for delivery.

Regarding the exhibition Chris has written for us:

quote:

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I felt the exhibition was both a success and a failure. It was very well received and got some really good press coverage, including a great review in the Guardian. It was seen by a lot of people who might not otherwise be interested in Dance (ie, the Theatre audiences visiting the Lyttleton who took a great interest in the show at the intervals). I was very pleased with the way the show looked and felt it was a good representation of my work, although there were still many images that I couldn't include for financial reasons.

Which brings me to the failure side of the exhibition. Although I managed to raise some sponsorship (including a much appreciated £500 from criticaldance.com), I have been left with a large debt that is going to take some time to clear. Of all the exhibitons that I have put on over the years (over 40) this is the only one where I haven't been able to cover the costs.

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