
Dancing Queen
As a fourth year class, we wanted to raise money at the Bookmarks Fair 2020 for our upcoming D&AD exhibition in Summer 2020. Our decision was to create a selection of a5 prints consisting of illustrative responses to a selection of ABBA songs. I chose ‘Dancing Queen’ as I felt it was the right subject matter for what I had recently been researching with. I also liked how the idea of a Queen could be spun into something empowering and feministic. I liked the concept of symmetry in dance and body positions. I wanted to take the idea of a strong, individualised set of women who believe that they are ‘queens’ in their own right. I also liked how ABBA as a band wore similar colours and dressed as a group when performing. I changed the lyrics to ‘You can twerk, you can grind, having the time of your life! See that girl, buss it down on the scene, diggin’ the dancing queen.’ I felt that these lyrics were more appropriate for the modern woman of today. Combining dance styles, such as twerking and grinding, to a 70’s original song with visuals that represent the hip hop/dancehall culture is a crossover I think that works admirably.
