"The Dancers" - Denver, CO
Posted by: 
Big B Bob
N 39° 44.582 W 104° 59.956
13S E 500062 N 4399237
A controversial pair of footloose and fancy-free fellows doing a jig on the taxpayer dime.
Waymark Code: WM3R4E
Location: Colorado, United States
Date Posted: 05/08/2008
Views: 119
"Dancers" was permanently installed in front of the Denver Performing Arts Complex on June 12, 2003. It is a 25-ton steel and fiberglass sculpture. Mounted around the circular base of the sculpture (at ground level) are 5 speakers, which continuously play the song "Let's Dance". "Let's Dance" was composed, performed and recorded by Jonathan Borofsky and Samuel Conlogue at Infusion Studios in Portland, Maine. The sculpture was commissioned by the people of the City and County of Denver, in conjunction with the Mayor's Commission on Art, Culture, and Film, and the Denver Art, Culture and Film Foundation.
Though not without controversy;
Dumb and Dumber
Jonathan Borofsky's "The Dancers" waltz into Denver.
By Michael Paglia
Published: June 26, 2003
On the morning of Thursday, June 12, Mayor Wellington Webb and First Lady Wilma Webb, among a host of political and art world luminaries, dedicated the most expensive sculpture ever erected in Denver, "The Dancers," by international art star Jonathan Borofsky. The public was invited to the event, and I was even invited specifically, but I couldn't bring myself to go. I didn't want to have to applaud the thing, which politeness would have dictated, because I'm going to have to look at the monstrosity for years to come -- and that seems like more than enough for the city to ask of me or of any other citizen.
The Borofsky was the final selection, but the committee didn't choose it. No, First Lady Wilma Webb did. She had become a big player in the Denver public-art world in the '90s -- based solely on whom she had married -- and often used her political clout to impose her ideas on the rest of us. But she was not alone in her fondness for the Borofsky. Mega-wealthy art patron Noel Congdon liked it, too, and she and her husband, Tom, put up hundreds of thousands of dollars toward the purchase. Other individuals also pledged money, but it was not enough to pay for the Borofsky, which eventually cost $1.58 million.
This mammoth expenditure has galled many, and I can't blame them. That kind of money could have revitalized the Denver art world if it had been spread around a little in the area. But honestly, it's not a bad price when you consider Borofsky's stature as a major contemporary artist with twenty years' worth of high-status sculpture commissions under his belt.
Name or use 'Unknown' if not known: Dancers
Figure Type: Human
Artist Name or use 'Unknown' if not known: Jonathan Borofsky
Date created or placed or use 'Unknown' if not known: 2003
Materials used: Steel and Fiberglass
Location: Denver Performing Arts Center
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