The reason for my obsession..

Since I was tiny I have been a dancer and only stopped doing ballet when I was 17, so I have been surrounded with it for most of my life. I have a really strong interest in the human body and the way different people can make their bodies move, so for me this isn't just an opportunity to show my character design, but also a chance for me to practice animating movement, because I don't feel like I have don't a great deal of this so far and I would like to improve.

There are a number of dance based animations which I find really satisfying to watch because the movement is animated to beautifully. For example, "Thought of you" by Ryan Woodward and "Duet" by Glen Keane.

Although I want this to be an animation based on movement, I still want the character's physique to be exaggerated and not to replicate the realistic human form. I want it to be gruesome and edgy, therefore contradicting the typical style of ballet. 

Inspiration to make it disturbing..

This stop motion animation "T is For Toilet" created by Lee Hardcastle, is full of blood and guts, and even though it is animated through claymation which would be seen as quite a difficult way of animating this, it looks really effective. This animation was a reminder for me, that making something gory and humorous at the same time can really work, and I love dark humour. 

This particular shot from 2010's "Black Swan" which was directed by Darren Aronfsky, depicts a scene where the main dancer begins to hallucinate, and she thinks her legs are snapping in two. I found this scene disturbing because it is pretty graphic, however lets face it, I love the graphic stuff. This has influenced my idea for my animation, because I like the idea of having my character's legs or feet becoming corrupted in some gruesome way so the dancing is stopped by the ending. This shot above has kick started quite a lot of different scenarios in my mind as to what could happen to the dancer's legs.