The fruits of a friendship

During almost three decades artist Robert Heindel travelled across America, Europe and Japan in pursuit of his obsession for dance. Whilst his earlier career was rooted in New York where, during the 1970s, he became one of the most respected and successful commercial illustrators of his generation, his true passion was realised after a night at the ballet.

Heindel's wife Rose persuaded him that a generous gift of two tickets from a client was too enticing to decline; with a certain reluctance the man who thought it was 'all tutus and tights' spent the evening enthralled at the magnificence of none other than the partnership between Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev. Rose recalled his response: 'what have I been missing?'

Following what was a life-changing encounter, the artist embarked upon a course that took him from the illustration agencies and via the dance studios, to the world of art galleries in London, San Francisco, Monte Carlo, Tokyo and beyond. For him the many facets of life were to be found in the illusive world he had discovered.

His preference was to observe class and in particular rehearsal, which gave him an often unique insight into all that preceded a finished performance. His works, primarily in oil, pastel and conte crayon served to reflect the passion, energy and movement he witnessed. Opera House, formerly the magazine of The Royal Ballet and Opera proclaimed: 'from the toil and sweat of gruelling preparation to the theatrics and spectacle of costume and colour, it's not difficult to spot a Heindel. The artist's talent is a singular ability to pour movement and emotion onto the canvas or blank sheet before him'.

In the early 1990s Heindel received a video recording of 'Still Life' at the Penguin Café, for him a curious and compelling mix of dance and music that explored all things primal. The association, indeed friendship, he later enjoyed with David Bintley in hindsight seemed destined. The artist so enjoyed 'Still Life' he made his interest known to the then Artistic Director of The Royal Ballet, Anthony Dowell. Some years prior, Heindel had worked at Covent Garden and produced several canvases with subjects that included Anthony Dowell, Marguerite Porter, Merle Park and Sir Frederick Ashton. In fact, the 'Sir Fred' painting is now in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery in London.

The request to observe rehearsals of 'Still Life' was granted and Heindel set upon bringing his own new dimension to what he viewed as an amazing collaboration between choreographer, designer and composer. In 1994 in London's Cork Street Gallery the resulting collection of paintings and sketches, 'Still Life' at the Penguin Café, was unveiled.

The frivolity of the penguin waiters and the cunning of the Brazilian Woolly Monkey were offset by the vulnerability of the Utah Longhorn Ram and the intense life and death impressions stirred by the Southern Cape Zebra.

David Bintley had been aware of Heindel's work for a number of years and thus when choreographer invited artist to design costumes and set for The Dance House the prospect was readily embraced. The initial inspiration for Bintley had been a poem from a medieval 'dance of death' woodcut which asserted, 'Ye all to the dance house must go'. The dance house it referred to was, of course, death.

Heindel revelled in the project and drew on his earlier illustrative discipline to provide not one but some 14 set designs from which Bintley had the 'task' of selecting just one. The rather abstract form selected resembled the faded structure of a house, in outline not unlike that of Heindel's own home in Connecticut.

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