The Dance for Paula Rego

Music composed and performed by Carole Nelson as part of the exhibition Na Cailleacha with reference to Paula Rego, curated by Catherine Marshall and Sarah Searson.

Here are Paula Rego’s dancers on a beach under the moon, dancing in silence. And here is the music made for them (and us) to dance to. It begins with an echo of the fado singer I heard in a Lisbon bar, a song of pain and resilience that penetrated body and soul. Then slowly, the rhythm begins. So slow, it is like slow riding a bike before it begins to wobble and fall.

Rego has painted herself into this painting. Her husband is there too, modelled by her son after the death of her husband during the making of the painting. So she looks at us: pain and resilience.

The sounds you hear are played and recorded in my home: alto saxophone, piano and some percussion.

Carole Nelson http://www.carolenelsonmusic.c...