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Dance the pain away

  • Event series
Photograph of a laptop on a desk.  On the laptop screen are four vertical photographs placed side to side, each monotone, but with a bright yellow tone overlaid. Each image shows an individual in a performative pose. On the far left a woman facing the camera just appears into view holding her arm up bent at the elbow, fingers splayed, one hand almost touching the other. The image to right of this one shows a man facing away from the camera hands pushing against a plain wall, leaning hard against it. The image to the right of this shows a man lying on his back on the floor, neck arched back with one foot raised against a plain wall. The image on the far right show a woman just disappearing out of the frame, facing away from the camera. She is standing with her legs crossed and her left arm raised level with her shoulders and bent at the elbow. On the laptop screen are videocall icons, and a red telephone icon. Around the laptop is a houseplant, lamp and headphones.
Dance the Pain Away, Photo: Kathleen Arundell. Still on laptop screen: Joy Inside Our Tears, 2021. Harold Offeh. Performers: Veronica Cordova de la Rosa, Samara Mayanja, Harold Offeh and Ebun Sodipo. Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).

‘Dance the pain away’ is a series of online events exploring the redemptive power of joy through social dance. The events are curated by artist Harold Offeh to accompany his ‘Joy Inside Our Tears’ installation, part of our ‘On Happiness’ season.

About the curator

Black and white photograph of a young man with 
a short beard wearing glasses and a white baseball hat. The background is black.

Harold Offeh

(he/him)

Harold Offeh is a UK-based artist working in a range of media including performance, video, photography, learning and social arts practice. Offeh is interested in the space created by inhabiting or embodying histories, using humour to confront the viewer with historical narratives and contemporary culture. He has exhibited widely in the UK and internationally, including Tate Britain and Tate Modern, South London Gallery, Turf Projects (London), Kettle’s Yard, Wysing Arts Centre Studio (Cambridge), Studio Museum Harlem (New York), MAC VAL (France) Kunsthal Charlottenborg (Denmark) and Art Tower Mito (Japan). He recently completed a PhD exploring the activation of Black album covers through performance. He is a Reader in Fine Art at Leeds Beckett University and a tutor in Contemporary Art Practice at the Royal College of Art.