Some dances have the colours of their national costumes, as with the Highland fling. Mexican colours of the samba are the magical kaleidoscopic colours of the peasant fiesta. In the snake dance one would expect to see squirming, sinister, serpentine and even silvery colours.

One of the most formal of introductions to colour in dance was that of Oskar Schlemmer of the Bauhaus. His dance consisted of movements along the lines of a square and its diagonals. The dancers dressed in primary colours, such as red, yellow and blue. Colour can be seen at its best in the ballet costumes and scenery of the extravagant Ballet Russes (the Russian Ballet) now on show at the Hayward Gallery, London, South Bank. Here you can see the colourful and inventive designs for Scheherazade which Leon Bakst was wholly involved in, along with great artists such as Matisse, Picasso, Delaunay and Goncharova.

B.T.