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July 7th, 2008
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Erotic arithmetic

Photographer Pavel Brunclík finds new angles in classical dance

By Brooke Edge
For The Prague Post
July 18th, 2007 issue

Photo courtesy of PAVEL BRUNCLÍK
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Photo courtesy of PAVEL BRUNCLÍK
Brunclík's fascination with mathematical precision takes human form in his studies of National Theater Ballet dancers.
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The Geometry of Nudity

Through July 31
Mánes Gallery, Masarykovo nábř. 250, Prague 1–New Town
Open Tues.–Sun. 10–6

To become a professional dancer, a person must train his or her body in unnatural, often near-impossible ways. Years of dedication are spent transforming torsos and appendages, creating stomachs so lean and muscular that they reveal dozens rather than a “six pack,” and toes misshapen from being trapped and abused in pointe shoes — all in the name of art.

Often these men and women do such an effective job of creating ideal figures that, offstage and up close, they appear more animal than human. Photographer Pavel Brunclík chose these bodies as the focus of his latest exhibit, an intersection of humanity and mathematics titled “The Geometry of Nudity,” currently on display at Mánes Gallery.

Brunclík was able to create near-perfect lines from the flab-free forms of soloists from the National Theater Ballet, capturing on film how strong yet graceful the human body can become. Without so much as a stray or extraneous hair on their bodies — some aesthetician in Prague must have been busy right before Brunclík’s shoot — the dancers are sleek and moldable. The black, white and gray images contain triangles, circles, rectangles and other shapes so perfect they could illustrate a math textbook.
One photo in particular, a seemingly simple portrait of a ballerina in third arabesque, demonstrates how complicated, yet elemental, ballet is at its roots. The arms and legs mirror each other exactly in triangles of identical angles. It’s not a showy position; rather, it’s perfect precision. That photo captures what makes the art of classical dance so difficult.
Brunclík, 54, has been incorporating both dance and nudity into his photography for decades. He graduated from Prague’s FAMU in 1980 with a degree in documentary film, and made ballet the focus of his thesis project. The catalog for his current exhibition explains that Brunclík wasn’t fascinated by dancing itself, but rather “the aesthetics of the body in motion.”
Even before his time at film school, geometry had a place in Brunclík’s heart as well. Daniela Mrázková of Czech Press Photo writes in the program, “With a university degree in mathematics, [Brunclík] is a stickler for every detail. Precision, austerity and simplicity are his devices. The purity of shape, even a certain minimalism of shape, is one of his objectives.”
In this new exhibit, then, Brunclík has brought together his attraction to bodies in motion and his preoccupation with perfect forms. His models’ lack of extraneous curves, beyond the slightest breast or bulging calf, proves to be an ideal photographic prop.
With skintight costumes and practice attire meant to most ably display choreography and technical skill, classical ballet has never left much to the imagination. (If it did, Mikhail Baryshnikov may not have held such a spellbinding power over female fans in the 1970s.) Yet, at the same time, ballerinas aren’t necessarily perceived as sexy or sensual creatures. The demands of the art form, combined with the “Balanchine body” increasingly required by choreographers and artistic directors of recent decades, make womanly features anathema.
Yet Brunclík manages to draw a humanity and sexuality from the female dancers in many of the exhibition’s images. His photos show a different side of these creatures, allowing them to express their femininity in bolder, more erotic ways than are possible in roles such as a swan princess or lilac fairy. Some shapes created by the nude pas de deux in “The Geometry of Nudity” are downright steamy.
Beautifully sunlit and simply presented, Brunclík’s latest exhibition is an engaging intersection of cold mathematics with flesh and blood. His subjects may appear superhuman in their shapes and abilities, but the photographer’s presentation of them retains a soul missing from the mere study of lines — and often from the study of dance as well.

Brooke Edge can be reached at tempo@praguepost.com


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