One doesn’t typically associate the words ballet and paper…unless you’re Miss Cloudy/Pauline Loctin and Melika Dez.
The two artists – designer and photographer, respectively – have creatively named their project after the french word plié; in ballet, this is a movement in which the body bends (most commonly the knees) and in paper design it describes something folded so much so that it is almost flat.
Using this as their inspiration, Loctin and Dez show the rest of us how these two arts can indeed be expressed together.
They keenly choose featured dancers from Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ballet Hispanico, Brooklyn Ballet, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Les Grands Ballets, and Teatro dell’Opera di Roma and select the cities of Montreal, New York, Paris, and Rome as their backdrops.
Loctin’s creations are both visually stimulating in color, texture, and the mere fact that they are adorning ballet dancers. Dez’s stunning photography makes wonderful use of the sometimes monochromatic and sometimes contrasting hues and complexions.
The exhibit, which runs from October 9 – November 4, 2018, is free and open to the public and takes place at Ausgang Plaza in Montreal, Canada. If you love the work but can’t make it there, you can purchase prints at the boutique on Pli.é Project’s website.
Featured photo courtesy of Pli.é Project: Ballerinas in Paper Tutus.
