Precarious Balance
Bodies. The way in which each body can oscillate and bend in various ways has always intrigued me. I experiment with multiple physical activities in order to understand the way the body can move. From childhood to the present, I have always been inspired by the geometric weightlessness of ballet. This past year, in order to comprehend how a ballet dancer orients their body, I immersed myself in ballet; taking classes, reading books, viewing documentaries and experiencing ballet performances as a member of the audience. Gestural drawings of the moving dancers would later be interpreted into jewelry design sketches. My collection, “Precarious Balance”, is directly inspired by ballet.
Ballet is a fluid composition of geometric poses; each geometric shape flows into another. The movements are precise and defined. The ballet dancer is able to balance their entire body on one foot, allowing the audience to think the dancer is defying gravity; they appear to be visually floating. The poses and movements seem tenuous to the audience, but are stabilized through the dancer’s proper distribution of weight. Each piece in my collection is carefully balanced in order to allude to the dynamic angles and weight distribution of a ballerina takes into consideration while dancing.
© SamanthaNaniaJewelry