Anamarie Sarazin (L) and Elaine Bauer (R), 1972
The Boston Ballet Company
In rehearsal for Fall River Legend by Agnes De Mille

"Lizzie Borden took an ax and gave her mother forty whacks."  Well, actually, it was her *stepmother* who got the 40 whacks.  In this touching dream scene, Lizzie, in anguish over having murdered her father, is comforted by the ghost of her real mother.

This image is all the more poignant to me because my friend Annie, the exceptional and beautiful artist, passed away in 1999.

This photograph and the one of Clive Thompson in Hermit Songs were the basic inspirations for this exhibition. The dancers are successful in conveying emotional intensity through their expressions, their arms, their upper bodies, even though they are standing still. This pose is reminiscent of a pietà, while the image of Clive clearly portrays the crucifixion.

I decided to build an exhibition of dance photographs around these images, in which the dancers' legs and feet momentarily play a small role. The point is that dancing (ballet, in particular) is so much more than turnout, extension, the ability to jump and turn, or having a long neck and long legs...that being an artist is to dance with the entire instrument: the human body.