Keith Cunningham’s drawings of dancers form a distinctive strand of his practice, in which movement, tension and abstraction converge. In these unique works, the dancer’s bodies become vehicles for exploring rhythm, structure and the expressive potential of line. Working primarily in coloured pencil and pastels, Cunningham avoids descriptive detail in favour of suggestion. Figures twist, stretch and dissolve across the page, often reduced to dynamic sweeps, arcs and intersecting vectors. His drawings do not document poses or choreography; they distil motion into essential visual forms. Each figure becomes a record of internal and external forces in play.

What emerges is not a celebration of grace but an investigation of strain, control, balance and flux. Cunningham’s dancers seem to hover at the edge of transformation. There is an energy in these works that is both physical and psychological, a reflection of his broader interest in the human condition as something inherently unstable. These drawings convey a deep understanding of the female figure, grounded in Cunningham’s disciplined draughtsmanship. His restraint, emerging from his training as graphic designer, allows each line to carry weight, each void to hold meaning. The dancers are not isolated subjects but part of a broader visual language.