Carol Prud’homme Davis

Carol Prud’homme Davis is an artist, curator, and activist. She is the Founder and Executive Director of the non-profit, Inside Change from Within, President of Inside Change Inc., and is on the Advisory Board of the American Dance Museum. She has been an Artist in Residence for many New York City dance organizations such as the Saraika Movement Collective, National Ballet Academy, Anna Sokolow Dance Theater, the American Dance Museum, Dark Rooms and Alison Cook Beatty Dance Company.

Her unique “gesture” drawings and illustrations have been featured in books, periodicals, documentary films; and on dance program and music covers, and merchandise. The Anna Sokolow Theatre Dance Company, Rooms, and Dances We Dance have exhibited her work on their websites. Her work has also been presented by the American Dance Museum, Infinity Dance Theatre, Peridance, Goddard Riverside, Childhood Unmuted, Spoke the Hub (with Saraika Movement Collective), Visual Aids, and the East Texas Fair. She illustrated Kimberlee Monroe’s original puppetry story, Helmet, which is being expanded into a children’s book.

She has recently been commissioned by the American Dance Museum to document Janet Panetta’s Ballet for Contemporary Dancers syllabus and choreography via her live-drawn gestures, and also by the National Dance Education Organization to capture abled and disabled dancers performing Horton and ballet techniques with Infinity Dance Theater.

Carol has curated Inside Change Street Artists and Resident Lower East Side Artists projection exhibitions at the Elizabeth Street Garden, 6th Street/Avenue Community Garden, Seventh Adventist Delancey Church, and Tom & Jerrys Bar. She is currently exhibiting and creating work for the Keith Lee Legacy project.

Publications:

  • Nordic Journal of Dance; Punking and Whacking, by Alyssa Chloe Briteramos

  • The Lynne Simonson Legacy, by Jeanne Donough

  • American Dance Museum: Janet Panetta syllabus book (in process)

  • Helmet: Children’s Puppet Performance Illustrations (in process)

  • Infinity Dance Theatre: Syllabus/performance of Infinity technique via National Dance Education Organization

Exhibitions:

  • American Dance Museum

  • Infinity Dance Theatre

  • Goddard Riverside

  • Childhood Unmuted

  • Peridance

  • This is Saraika at Spoke the Hub

  • Visual Aids

  • East Texas Fair

·       Keith Lee Legacy project

Book Cover: A Dancer Writes Haiku, by Maria Paquet-Nesson

Documentaries:

  • Pause by Charly Wenzel

  • Bowery Street and Resident Artists

Websites:

·      Anna Sokolow Theatre Dance Company

·      Rooms, Dances We Dance (Francesca Todesco)

  • Loie.com.ar

    I have drawn my whole life. I have also known that I was a dancer my whole life.  I first drew dance from the photos in Dance Magazines by looking at the photo only, not allowing myself to look down at my pencil and paper until I had finished. I then started drawing live, in the subway, in the NYC neighborhoods and then actual dancers.

    Sandra Cameron (All Round World Ballroom Champion) and Igal Perry (Peridance) allowed me to draw dance classes taught in their studios live.  This gave me the opportunity to start archiving dance in a way, by drawing as many dance techniques as I could find. Thanks to Cameron and Perry, I have been able to archive a lot of different dance forms. From there I drew dance companies in rehearsal and performance.  These sessions allowed me to create images of choreography bursting with color, energy and emotion from many dance artists.  These images were used by me to choreograph or write my own asemic sentences.

    When the pandemic arrived, I had no opportunity to draw face to face, but I did get invited to draw zoom rehearsals and classes. This again gave me images to choreograph/write my own asemic.

    I found that on Instagram I could find clips of choreographies and started to draw from videos, going stop/go, stop/go, drawing as fast as I could, like I did when I drew dance live.  I found that I was drawing my reaction to the choreography as an asemic.

    Of course, none of this could be done unless I was a dancer, feeling physically what I was drawing; the dancer or dancers.  With Dance/Drawing I can transfer the energy lines that come from my heart to my arm through my hand and pencil onto the paper. I call it Dance/Draw.

Dance Program Covers:

  • Anna Sokolow Theatre Dance Company

  • Alison Cook Beatty Dance

  • Infinity Dance Theatre

Dance Music Record Cover: Ballet Music for Adagio by Richard Maddock

Merchandise:

  • Mordance Company

  • Saraika Movement Collective