Fire in the Sky : The Cloud Dancers of Lotfi Bouslah

Art is a vibrant energy, a shared passion, a message that comes to us from the depths of the spiritual and all its manifestations that inspire, encourage, that free the soul and the heart, and in the case of dance, that are capable of also setting the body free. Art, like love, is a freedom song, like the flight of birds.
Today, nature photographer Lotfi Bouslah of Lolo Pics shared such a freedom song, with the superb photo of a blue sky where two free spirits dance, like two fire dancers, with the black mountains their dramatic theatrical stage, all along the horizon of the day that is ending. Dominant like two enormous modern sculptures, the clouds in this photo take the shape of a muscular male dancer,  arms high in the air, the legs in the middle of a high jump, in a gesture of precision and seduction, and his partner, made from the imagination of these fantastic clouds, an enchanting female dancer, briefly kneeling, in a gesture of appreciation and hope towards the beautiful male dancer. The long hair of the female dancer bounces with the energy of the jumps of her male partner, in this intense and intimate encounter that the cobalt blue night sky has designed for this magnificent visual poem. At the feet of the male dancer, there is a golden light, like the reflection of the energy of his movements, and the female dancer is surrounded by red clouds, that wrap themselves around her legs, like the dress of a flamenco dancer. It is a scene of passionate sensual and transcendental beauty all in one. The male cloud dancer reminds me of a magnificent photo of a jump by Russian dancer Sergei Polunin, born in 1989 in Kherson, in the Ukraine, a dancer of international renown. The female dancer in the clouds reminds me of a painting by Andrew Atroshenko, born in 1965, in Pokrovsk, Russia, I think specifically of his painting of a flamenco dancer, arms held high, with a red dress wrapped around her energetic legs like a big flame. The golden colours of the cloud dancers in the photo of Lotfi Bouslah also remind me of a sculpture by the French artist Francois Raoul Larche ( 1860 - 1912 ) , of his gold bronze lamp, in the Art Nouveau style, of the American dancer Loie Fuller ( 1862 - 1928 ), wrapped in the energetic passion of her movements. Loie Fuller was considered revolutionary when it came to her knowledge of lighting techniques for the theatre, and her " Serpentine Dance " where she combined silk costumes and innovative lighting to accentuate the movement of her undulating costumes. She was an important symbol of the Art Nouveau Movement and a celebrated dancer and choreographer in Paris during her illustrious career. The photo of the clouds of Lotfi Bouslah remind me of the videos of this dancer with their energetic movements on the part of Loie Fuller, that were accentuated with the vibrant and illuminated colours of her innovative costumes, where the dancer and the costume were in a synchronized and harmonious flux.
It is beautiful when the skills of an artist take us by surprise, like this photo that is a clever wink to avant - garde art on the part of the nature photographer Lotfi Bouslah of Lolo Pics.
Trudi Ralston

The research on the Russian dancer Sergei Polunin, the Russian painter Andrew Atroshenko, the French sculptor Francois Raoul Larche and the American dancer Loie Fuller, courtesy of Wikipedia.