As I walk into the Vault
Gallery in Great Barrington, housed in the former Mahaiwe Bank building,
there’s a photo shoot going on, some French jazz, various people milling
about, directions being given and flashbulbs going off.
This is a welcoming place.
For, despite the busyness, I’m asked several times if I would like help or
information.
The gallery is small and a
bit quirky; quotes are painted on the walls, chairs are arranged for
tete-a-tetes and potted orchids lend both beauty and color. Then there’s
that vault — yes, there is a vault, in all its vault glory, serving as the
smaller room of this two-room gallery.
And soon enough I am in
conversation with Marilyn Kalish, the gallery’s proprietor, whose
"Sensuality of Dance" series is currently on display.
Kalish’s work is all about
energy, and movement. A year or so ago she was drawing birds; now she’s
drawing and painting dancers — dancers in the process of leaping,
twirling, swooping. Not, she is quick to point out, Degas-like dancers,
posing.
While Kalish’s current obsession is
dancers, which she starts by viewing at nearby Jacob’s Pillow, it’s not
dance itself that draws her. It’s the physics of energy and movement...
