{"id":61216,"date":"2026-02-03T13:10:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T13:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/?p=61216"},"modified":"2026-02-03T13:10:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T13:10:21","slug":"stuart-lawson-dancers-communicate-through-movement-not-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/stuart-lawson-dancers-communicate-through-movement-not-words\/","title":{"rendered":"Stuart Lawson: \u201cDancers communicate through movement, not words!\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo from Stuart Lawson’s archive<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

You spent a lot of time in Russia\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I first came in 1995 and stayed. It was a fantastic time. And then, of course, everything that followed was wonderful too.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Photo from Stuart Lawson’s archive<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I also spoke with violinist Roman Mints \u2013 he told me the story. It really does sound like destiny \u2013 what your meeting in Moscow and working together led to.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, absolutely. Roman even wrote a lovely post about how much he appreciated what I did 25 or 30 years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Photo from Stuart Lawson’s archive<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In essence, you significantly helped the festival at that time, didn\u2019t you? And many other initiatives as well.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, that\u2019s true. I was very closely connected with the school Roman graduated from \u2013 the Gnesin School. I knew Mikhail Hokhlov, who was the headmaster at the time. When I was working in banking, I was always looking for ways to bring culture into the institution \u2013 music, visual art, and other forms of creativity. I also collaborated with students from the Surikov School. When I bought a building for Citibank, I invited students to exhibit their paintings there. Years later \u2013 probably 12 years later \u2013 one of those students came into my office at HSBC and said: \u201cBecause you did that, we\u2019ve been able to build the largest collection of Soviet realism in America.\u201d That really struck me. You do something small, you lose sight of it \u2013 and then many years later it comes back, and you realise how important it was.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Photo from Stuart Lawson’s archive<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I\u2019d like to ask you about identity. In the preface to your exhibition, you talked about how your work explores identity. What does it mean for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Let me take a step back. My entire worldview was shaped by the fact that from the age of 23 I lived in other people\u2019s countries. I\u2019m British, I grew up in London. My father was an immigrant from South Africa, originally from Lithuania. He was Jewish; his family left Lithuania for Cape Town, then Johannesburg. Later he moved to Scotland and became a doctor, and then practised in London. So, in a way, my roots are Lithuanian \u2013 though I\u2019ve never really explored them consciously. They\u2019re just part of my DNA. I joined Citibank when I was 21, in London, and then I started moving. Over 25 years with the bank, I lived \u2014 not visited, but lived \u2013 in 11 countries: England, Scotland, Kenya, Greece, Egypt, France, Norway, Italy, Russia, Puerto Rico, and the United States. In every country I tried to connect with local people. I didn\u2019t mix with expatriates \u2013 I wanted to understand the culture from inside. As a result, my son from my first marriage is American. He grew up in Sag Harbor, in the Hamptons. But because I was living in Russia, and because I promised to take him to every country I lived in, he became a global citizen. Today he\u2019s a videographer. He was just in Saudi Arabia, and as we speak he\u2019s flying to San Francisco. He inherited from me \u2013 and I inherited from my father \u2013 a love of the world and a deep curiosity about other cultures.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Photo from Stuart Lawson’s archive<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Is it important where a dancer was born \u2013 Russia, France, somewhere else? Can you sense it in the way they move?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Absolutely not. One of my close friends is Anna Turazashvili from the Bolshoi theatre \u2013 she\u2019s Georgian, a soloist, a wonderful dancer and person. I was in Perm when they invited five Brazilian dancers from S\u00e3o Paulo to join the company. They stayed for several years. They didn\u2019t speak Russian \u2013 but everyone understands French ballet terminology. That was the common language. What fascinated me was that dancers communicate through movement, not words. Their communication is not verbal, not cultural \u2013 it\u2019s physical. If anything, I see more difference between classical and contemporary dance cultures than between national backgrounds.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Photo from Stuart Lawson’s archive<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

How did ballet enter your life?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It began with one weekend in Perm, Russia. I was invited there to give a lecture \u2013 I\u2019m an honorary professor at Plekhanov University and several others. After the lecture, they took me to the Perm Ballet. I didn\u2019t realise then that it was a descendant of the Kirov Ballet, relocated during World War II, carrying with it the DNA of excellence. I had no particular interest in ballet at the time. Ballet didn\u2019t attract me \u2013 ballet appeared. What changed everything was access. That weekend \u2013 February 14, 2015, incidentally the same weekend I met my wife, who is from Perm \u2013 I watched the ballet, and from that moment on I returned every six weeks. I would lecture, and then spend two or three days inside the ballet, ten hours a day. I\u2019d been a photographer since the age of ten, but that experience gave me the impetus to move forward seriously with my photography.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Photo from Stuart Lawson’s archive<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Is the language of the body important for you as a photographer? How did you learn to read and understand it?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had no background in dance. Before Perm, I went to the ballet maybe once every six months. But during that intense period, I spent hours simply observing. Sometimes I wouldn\u2019t even take photographs \u2013 I\u2019d just sit and watch. Over time, I began to understand the rhythm of that world: not musical rhythm, but the rhythm of repetition, correction, daily progress. Watching a dancer work one-on-one with a teacher was especially revealing. A movement would look perfect to me \u2013 but the instructor would say, \u201cNo, this is wrong,\u201d and demonstrate a tiny adjustment. At first, I couldn\u2019t see the difference at all. But what resonated with me was the philosophy behind it. At the time, I was teaching a course on \u201csuccessful failure\u201d \u2013 the idea that progress comes through failure, not success. I even used ballet lessons as an example in leadership training. I showed managers how dancers accept correction openly, repeat the movement, and improve \u2013 without ego.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo from Stuart Lawson’s archive<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Photo from Stuart Lawson’s archive<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

How do you think \u2013 do dancers have a special inner fire? Federico Garc\u00eda Lorca called this state \u201cduende\u201d. Is it something unique to dancers, or does it belong to everyone who is connected to art in one way or another?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s focus on dancers. Look at their lives. A professional dancer works six days a week, eleven months a year. Their day starts at 11 a.m. and ends at 11 p.m. That\u2019s twelve hours in the theatre. Out of a hundred students, five succeed. Every year, at least 30% are cut. You start at seven years old and maybe \u2013 maybe \u2013 by 17 or 18 you enter the corps de ballet. From there, you fight to be noticed, to become a soloist. It\u2019s a long, hard, unpredictable road. Without passion, survival is impossible. And they don\u2019t earn much money \u2013 certainly not enough to justify the effort without love. That\u2019s why I called one of my exhibitions Dancer\u2019s Soul<\/em>. That passion is what keeps them going through endless hours of practice.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Photo from Stuart Lawson’s archive<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

When I look at your photographs, I almost hear music. Is music important to you?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Very important. Always has been. I\u2019ve photographed musicians \u2013 percussionists, conductors, orchestras. One of the tattooed musicians you saw is Alexander Tsoi, Viktor Tsoi\u2019s son, from Kino. A close friend of mine in Russia is Ilya Lagutenko from Mumiy Troll\u201d \u2013 we\u2019ve known each other since 2004. I\u2019ve been to 40 or 50 of his concerts. But if you ask me about favourites \u2013 it\u2019s classical ballet: \u201cSwan Lake\u201d, \u201cGiselle\u201d, \u201cSleeping Beauty\u201d. The moment the prelude starts, before the curtain rises, I get goosebumps. That tension \u2013 it never leaves me.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Photo from Stuart Lawson’s archive<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Can you tell us about your technique?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My documentary work uses available light. But my constructed images require a completely dark studio. Light is everything in photography \u2013 it\u2019s the medium itself. Movement comes from constant light; multiple images come from strobe. Some images combine both. One thing is essential to say: no AI, no artificial post-production. I adjust exposure and colour, but I never add anything. What you see is what the camera captured. For every image you see, there are dozens that didn\u2019t work. But these successful shots require dancers at the peak of their art. That\u2019s what made Russia extraordinary for me: access to phenomenal talent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo from Stuart Lawson’s archive<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Photo from Stuart Lawson’s archive<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

How do you build connections when you work with dancers?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At first, in Perm, I didn\u2019t interact at all \u2013 I simply documented. Later, when I began creating images, communication became essential. I can\u2019t demonstrate movement physically, of course. Instead, I describe the image, the idea. The dancer performs, I show them the photograph immediately, and together we refine it. It\u2019s a dialogue \u2013 visual, not verbal. Some images are unrepeatable because they demand perfect balance and control. Only the very finest dancers can do that. And that, for me, is the beauty of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo from Stuart Lawson’s archive<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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Photo from Stuart Lawson’s archive<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What advice would you give to people moving to a new country?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learn where you are \u2013 not just geographically, but culturally and historically. Respect the place before you arrive. Too often expatriates carry only their own culture. But if you\u2019re entering someone else\u2019s world, openness is essential. When I moved from Moscow to southern France, I was unhappy at first. My wife told me: \u201cYou can\u2019t leave your camera in the corner.\u201d So I spent a month photographing 60 shopkeepers in our medieval town. That project later became an exhibition in Tashkent, supported by the French Embassy. Integration comes through curiosity, language, and genuine interest in people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

British photographer Stuart Lawson, the author of distinctive visual narratives about movement, memory, and identity, has long worked at the intersection of photography, choreography, and human character. His signature technique of chronographic portraiture \u2013 where gestures multiplied by the lens intertwine with the dancer\u2019s inner states \u2013 reveals not a frozen second, but a metamorphosis of human experience. In January 2026, a new exhibition, \u201cMetamorphoses\u201d, took place in London at the gallery space St John\u2019s Waterloo, presenting Lawson\u2019s works that reflect his long artistic journey \u2013 from documentary stories captured on the ballet stages of Russia to portraits of craftsmen and musicians from different parts of the world. In this interview, Stuart speaks about why the language of the body is so essential to portraying the human being, and how photography helps us understand what words are sometimes unable to express.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":61213,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[84],"tags":[],"type_post":[184],"column":[185],"class_list":["post-61216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","column-letters-from-the-theatre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/91"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61216"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61242,"href":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61216\/revisions\/61242"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61216"},{"taxonomy":"type_post","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/type_post?post=61216"},{"taxonomy":"column","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/column?post=61216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}