Dance Movements C and D

Between 1903 and 1912, Rodin used the same model, a young dancer called Alda Moreno, for a series of drawings and sculptures. He initially modeled two statuettes, which he then had cast in separate parts: heads, torsos, arms, legs. He reassembled these bozzetti in quite different poses, even if that meant extending a leg, bending the joint of a limb, tilting a head… Under Rodin’s fingers, the silhouettes changed shape like a dancer moving her supple body from sequences of limbering-up exercises to stretching to balancing postures. Rodin never showed this series of fourteen statuettes during his lifetime and nobody knows which positions he would have chosen to exhibit: Movement C may be presented with the head uppermost or pointing downward, while Movement D either stands upright or reclines on her back.

The Artwork in the Museum

Permanent collections - first floor, Room 18

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