Drie dansende paren in een danstent te Winschoten 1918

Otto Verhagen drew these three dancing couples in a dance tent in Winschoten with pencil on paper. The dancers are captured in swift strokes and shading, giving a sense of movement and rhythm, but mostly, just the idea of a dance. The composition is dynamic, with the figures arranged in a way that pulls you into the scene. I like the way the artist suggests the atmosphere of the dance tent—the energy, the intimacy, the blurry lights—without getting bogged down in details. It’s as if Verhagen quickly sketched the couples while cutting a rug with his own partner! You can almost hear the music. I find myself thinking about the history of drawing, from cave paintings to comic books, and how artists have used lines to tell stories and capture fleeting moments, not unlike dance itself! Art-making, like dancing, really, is about feeling your way through space, responding to what’s around you, and, sometimes, if you're lucky, making something beautiful out of it.