Dynamic Dance show – painting 100’s of faces fast

Summer 2012

Carly Fryman is related to Martin, a friend of mine at Bewilderwood, and had asked if I could help out at the first show given by her new business, Dynamic Dance. The show was a fund-raiser for Meningitis. Sadly, this was because years ago her baby brother died of the illness, and shockingly, another of her brothers died from it this year. Ryan was 19 and away at University at the time. I know many of his friends who worked with me at Bewilderwood, so I wanted to help.

Carly had a range of dances with different age groups, some of which had kids in more than 1 group/ costume. None of the other painters I know were free so I was on my own to do 200-ish faces in a few hours. I knew from the huge Mardi-Gras team events I had organised in Hong Kong that conveyor-belt painting would be fastest, so that is what I did.

I only took 4 colours, based on Carly’s theme – black, white, silver and grey. I was trying the new Superstar silvers which were very sparkly but ooof I do not like the scent!

For the quick & simple robot ½ faces I’d base 3 faces, do the black on all 3, then the highlights. It worked, I finished the dancers within the 3 hour limit and had lunch before the second performance.

Another set had a webby eyes, and the older teams had a sort of run-eyeliner-with-swirls look. I also did some Gaga-inspired stuff int he same shades on the teachers who had their own dance.

I must say the silver did look good and stay put fairly well even on sweaty faces, and washed off well for those having to change costumes, but it was quite soft and used up fast.  OK but possibly not going to be my favourite paint.

The performance was a great success, raising £3,500 for the fund set up in Ryan’s memory for the Meningitis Research Foundation. It’s at over £24,000! Well done  to all involved, a great cause.