‘Clubscapes and Dancerscapes'

About

Arts of Dance in association with Blackall Studios are proud to present the art of OSCAR ROMP A unique collection of images exploring UK club-dance culture from 1985-2011 Press Preview: Wednesday January 25th 4pm - 6pm Private View: Wednesday January 25th 6pm - 9pm Since the mid eighties Oscar Romp (Artist/dancer) has been employing his unique process at Jazz dance clubs, capturing the energy and vitality of the dancers. Drawing with pastel and charcoal on large sheets of paper taped to the dance-floor, Oscar fashions an image directly from what he sees (with no photographic intervention). The images are also informed by visual memory- (what he has seen and drawn in the past). Each drawing is an ‘on-the-spot' improvisation, in which the key elements of the club event (The room, the lighting, the people and their movement) are played around with, moved about on the paper, erased and redrawn, as the evening progresses, until it starts to work as an image…Breaks from the drawing are taken to dance, and breaks from the dancing are taken to draw. Somehow the energy and insight brought by the one activity feeds into the other. Throughout the duration of the exhibition Oscar will be present, working on ‘Works-in-progress' For the uninitiated we have a club night on Saturday 28th January to be attended by some of the most accomplished Jazz dancers from across the UK. Hosted by DJ's Phil Levene and Andy Ward plus special guest Dr Bob Jones. Showcasing Jazz-Dance mixed with related forms such as Soul, Funk, House and Broken-Beat. During the club night Oscar will also be demonstrating his technique in capturing the vitality of the dance floor. Arts of Dance draws together elements from the British Jazz Dance and evolving Jazz inspired Black Music scenes. It looks at the expanding relationship between the evolution of Jazz related music, dance and art, how these areas inspire and feed into each other and have no boundaries of age, culture or gender. CONTACT INFO: info@artsofdance.com Susie - 07792 299042 susie@artsofdance.com Oscar - 07989 436899 mail@oscarromp.f9.co.uk