The Egypto-Roman World

Dancer

The two figures in this painting are portraits of a dancer named Karole Armitage. She is also a choreographer, based in New York, and for several years she and the artist David Salle have worked together. He painted the sets for her various performances—including Three Theories, shown in the video below—and he used her as a model for many of his paintings. Karole was born in Madison, Wisconsin and began studying ballet at the age of four. Her first experience in the professional world of ballet was in 1973 with the Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève in Switzerland. She was a member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company until 1981, and during that time she choreographed her own piece, in 1978. After working abroad as a director and choreographer, she returned to the U.S. and in 2005 started her own company, Armitage Gone! Dance.