Watching ballet and modern dance makes me stare, mouth open and smiling, excited by the movement, the grace, the stretching and leaping. I admire the physical ability of the dancers and the dedication to their art that keeps them practising and living the movements that they perform for their audience. Neuroscience reveals how watching movement activates the mirror neurons in our brains and simulates the feeling of moving our own bodies in the same way. So watching open-mouthed is the visible signal of invisible activity in my mind; while I watch the dancing, I too am dancing. Painting dancers in movement presents the artist with a challenge. Photographs of dancers help me to find the source of the movement that I try to make appear on paper. Emphasising the tensions and straining of the dancer’s body helps to feel the effort that produces movement. I have experimented with physical gestures made with pencil over an image to suggest movement in a static image.