For over a decade, Monica Yother has painted dance figures that focus on movement, emotion, strength, and grace—capturing the dance itself rather than the dancer. In her newest body of work, however, she shift my gaze beyond the performance to the performer.

On stage, the dancer often becomes nearly transparent—what we witness in the ballet is the story and the character they embody through choreography and costume, rather than the individual behind it. Monica is intrigued by the concept of "the transparent dancer," aiming to reveal a glimpse of the person beneath the performance. She recently shared this idea with a principal ballet dancer, who responded, “That’s exactly how it is. I want people to remember the ballet, the story, and the feelings it evokes, not me.”

These paintings and drawings explore the idea of a dancer's transparency. In one series of works, the dancer merges with flowers, embodying the role she performs, with no faces to distract. In another set, expressions emerge through the feet, hands, and torso of the dancer, faces are again, absent. Lastly, in a final group of drawings and paintings, we catch glimpses of the dancer’s face, as she holds a position for a fleeting moment. There are only two paintings that show a dancer who is not actually dancing; in one she stands still but poised, with her hands clasped and looking away. In the other, the dancer looks over her shoulder at the viewer, the only work to make eye contact.

Rather than present the dancers on a stage with wooden floor and fabric curtains, Monica chose to suggest the world that the dancer’s character might inhabit. Instead of a heavy curtain that hides the scene from the audience, we see semi-transparent fabric that flows behind and in some cases in front of the figure, to suggest the transparency of the dancer.

It is the intention of this selection of works to look at ballet through a different lens, and observe dancers caught between movement, between notes.