New Work: Dance Till You Drop (Double Triptych)

Wax Pastel and Colour Pencil on paper, 42 x 89.1cm, 2025

Dance Till You Drop is a month-long project recently completed by Karolina Dema that explores the equalising themes of carnival, dance, and collective memory. This series consists of six A4 drawings pieced together, designed as a theater for a ballet or a play, intended to be brought to the stage on a much larger scale.

Shared Humanity

Inspired by carnival, the danse macabre theme and Henri Matisse’s Danse, Dance Till You Drop explores a moment of shared humanity—when all masks fall away, and we dance side by side, in celebration and defiance.

Interaction of Life and Death:

Dance Till You Drop displays caricatured representations of modern-day power in the levelling tradition of carnival, when roles are swapped and everything is turned upside down.

Telling Truth to Power

The red figure of Stanczyk, a court jester in 16th century Poland, is known as a truth-teller who speaks truth to power. The artist is a mirror that reveals uncomfortable truths, much like the water reflections reveal alternate versions of reality.

Mirrored Reflections

The dance’s mirrored imagery suggests an alternate reality, acting as a space for purification and showing how temporary life really is.

Message of Resistance and Belonging

Dance Till You Drop is a reminder that we all dwell under the same sun, embracing movement and dance as a way to reconnect with life’s joy and freedom.