Danish photographer John R. Johnsen has a long association with dance. The photographs that make up Body in Conquered Space at the Galway Arts Centre is the fruit of a collaboration between Johnsen and Royal Danish Ballet dancer Mette Bodtcher, who he photographed as she danced through a darkened room containing just a mirror.
She dances a classically choreographed version of the Arabian Dance from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker. The resultant images, of a poised body emerging from velvety black shade, freeze motion and ask whether you can separate the dancer from the dance as she defines and animates space by virtue of her presence and movement.
The show is accompanied by an illustrated catalogue with a text by dance critic Anne Flindt Christensen, head of Copenhagen Danens Hus. It costs £12.
