Jem Clancy

Jem Clancy

I am an aspiring dance and visual artist based in Leeds working primarily right now in film and animation.  Most recently I have been concentrating on storytelling, using movement and art to supplement words or perhaps even replace them altogether. I am especially interested the things that that words cannot say, in the experiences and ideas we all have as individuals, what we choose to show or perhaps is shown for us, what remains hidden and why.

I really enjoy working collaboratively and have been really lucky this year to have worked with a number of different individuals and groups to share their movement stories and voices. They have all been inclusive projects and I am really proud of the diversity that has contributed to and is represented in the work. The work is more for being inclusive and in every sense more colourful, more joyful, more real and more complete. It is something very important to me, to keep looking outwards, to be inclusive and always curious. 

I am a BEYOND Artist with Pyramid of Arts and an Associate Artist with the Tetley Art Gallery.

Instagram: @othergirlart
Twitter: @happyniknowit

Image descriptions:

Image One
The background is a sheet of music drawn by hand. Over the top are multiple colours which appear almost like clouds. Each cloud is a different colour and transparent so it is possible to see the music underneath and the different colours where they overlap. The main image is a drawing of two female ballet dancers. On the left the dancer is slightly higher. Her body faces the side with her head thrown back looking over her shoulder. Her hands are on her hips and she stands in one leg en pointe, the second bent behind her. She wears a sleeveless dress, pointe shoes and hair tied up in a bun. The dancer in the right faces the diagonal. Her back arm is raised vertically and the front arm is placed horizontally. She also stands in one leg, but on her flat foot and her leg is bent. The second leg is also bent but stretches further behind her than the first dancer. She wears a leotard, ballet shoes and hair in a bun.

Image Two
Digital drawing set into four parts. Each part features two dancers, one male and one female, in a different movement style. All the dancers smile, it is a happy picture. Each dancer is an ink line drawing and their clothes are cutouts of patterned paper. So they are shown to be very colourful. In the top left the girl jumps and her body twists towards her partner. Her legs are tucked, her back arm is bent and her front arm reaches diagonally also towards her partner. The male is upside down, balanced on one hand. He looks away from his partner and towards the pair on the right. His legs are bent behind him and his second arm wraps over his head. The pair in the right look like they are moving in a free informal style. The male looks towards his partner and the female down and away. He has one hand behind his back and the other points towards his partner along with his leg closest to her. The girl also has one leg pointed and the same hip raised. One arm is bent upwards and the second downwards. The couple at the bottom left look like they might be doing the Charleston. He is in a typical Charleston style, arms bent palms forward across his body and both legs bent, one in front of the other. She is in a lunge to the side, her head thrown back and her arms similar to the man’s but in front of her body. The last pair in the bottom right look to be doing the jive. The hold one hand and the other is bent away. Knees are bent and they both stand on one leg, their second legs out in front. They look at each other.

Image Three
Continuous digital line drawing of an inclusive dance group called Troop. They meet online, so are shown in a computer screen. There are eight dancers all striking a different pose. A mixture of female and male, reaching and looking in different directions. There is one seated dancer, one wheelchair dancer and the rest are standing. All are smiling and happy. Above them is a continuous line drawing of the word ‘Troop’. The colouring is minimal. The dancers are highlighted in yellow, the computer screen, frame, background and word and are highlighted in different shades of green. 

Image Four
Digital pencil drawing of a dance crew on zoom. The picture is split into nine boxes each with a different dancer in a different pose captured mid dance. Each dancer is coloured true to life in this image. Top right the female dancer kneels on the floor leaning back, one arm stretched the send holds it at the elbow. Middle top, the female dancer is in a wheelchair looking backwards arms in an upside down ‘v’. Top right the male dancer twists sideways one hand and the back of his head the other reaches out. Middle left we see just the torso and arms of a female dancer, she leans back and her arms cross delicately over her head. The middle centre male dancer is shown on as if he is mid run. Middle right male dancer is on his knees, arms bent at his side he looks up and leans backwards. Bottom left male dancer balances on one leg the scold crossed behind. He looks down one arm bent shoulder height the second reaches to the side. The middle dancer of the bottom row is a female dancer shown mid spin one arm up the other at her side. The last dancer shown is a female dancer with hands above her head, this time palms facing upwards one above the other.

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