site.btaPhoto Exhibition "Perfect Bodies" Shows Imperfections as Driving Force in Dance

The way dance artists view and evaluate their own bodies is the focus of the photographic exhibition "Perfect Bodies". It is a joint project of choreographer and visual artist Kosta Karakashyan and photographer Alexander Kostadinov. The exhibition can be viewed from May 21 to June 9 at the Toplocentrala Gallery - Cube, the organizers said.

"The dancing body is observed, commented on, manipulated and rejected repeatedly throughout a dance career, under the gaze of teachers, audiences and colleagues. The exhibition aims to challenge the audience and participating dancers to rethink the concept of the perfect body as one strong and resilient body. The inspiration for the project comes from Karakashyan's long experience as a professional dancer and the controversy surrounding dancers' bodies as both athletes and artists," the team says. They add that the bodies that are in front of the lens are of dancers who have been repeatedly told they have the "wrong" body for a successful dance career. The organizers note that each of them posed for two types of portraits - ones that confronted them with those features of their bodies that were a cause for remorse, and ones in which they let the life force of dance lead them freely.

"The photographs address an issue that not only dancers are ashamed to talk about, which is how to cope when our bodies can't live up to all the professional and personal desires we ask of them," the organizers say.

"Dancers are not only artists, but athletes who must maintain an almost impossible balance of strength, lightness, grace and beauty in a body that must also be resilient. Most dancers, often because of negative comments from teachers or colleagues, have trouble accepting their bodies. We wanted to explore all of these emotions and create a safe environment for the dancers who participated in our open invitation to explore their relationship with their bodies and open a dialogue with the audience about the invisible difficulties behind the beauty of the art of dance," says Karakashyan.