The word “choreography” comes from the ancient Greek χορεία (choreia) and γραφή (graphos). It means the writing of movement. In Motion in Stillness: Dance and the Human Body in Movement, presented by Vortic and Victoria Miro at the Victoria Miro in London, a group of painters and sculptures are taking that meaning literally.
The dancing that their works depict moves beyond the canvas of the painting, or the borders of the sculpture. Their choreography extends to the gallery’s visitors, moving around looking at the works, unaware that they too are part of the dance.
The gallery text next to Megan Rooney’s Night Folly (2024), explains that, to create her work, the artist “moves her body constantly around the canvas … shuffling, reaching, crawling, bending – the result of which is a paint surface made up of a huge variety of different marks”.
