Let's Dance

David Bowie’s anthemic song “Let’s Dance” took the charts by storm in 1983, reminding us that dancing makes an important contribution to people’s physical and mental health and embodies freedom par excellence. In posters for dance performances and dance festivals, it is often bare bodies whose beauty and (expressive) power are celebrated. In contemporary dance, for which the exhibited posters advertise, the constraints of classical ballet poses and costumes as well as the gender-specific distribution of roles have largely been abolished. In some posters, well-trained bodies in frozen, expressive poses occupy the surface and function as an effective visual sign. Other posters focus on individual body limbs as pars pro toto, while others capture the pleasure of movement through blurring or striking lighting effects. Geometric elements or playful typography pick up the rhythm of the image composition and accentuate the bodies. Let’s Dance!