Dance Piece: Mapplethorpe And Patti
Robert Mapplethorpe’s images are the inspiration behind Fleur Darkin’s latest work for Scottish Dance Theatre, “Velvet Petal,” which premieres in Mexico tonight. The Guardian: ‘The photographer is better known for his monochrome portraits treating the naked body as still life and for chronicling the sexual subcultures of New York in the 1970s. But for Darkin, his bright and detailed closeups of flowers embody a real sense of transformation. “We have tried to do the same in the show,†she says. “Stick to black and white … and then an epiphanic colour burst at the end.†The sense of emerging from the chrysalis and realising your true nature is at the heart of “Velvet Petal,” a work that began when Darkin read Patti Smith’s memoir “Just Kids.”‘
