Belly Dance de Nuit (I)

Belly Dance de Nuit (I) — 'Belly Dance at Night' — is unusual in Kasai's catalogue for its overt reference to performance and figure, although the title's Mediterranean-Levantine register links it to his sustained engagement with Istanbul and the Bosphorus. As the first of a numbered sequence, it sits within his practice of issuing variant treatments of a single subject across multiple sheets. The image likely treats the dance not figuratively but rhythmically, translating bodily movement into pattern and colour. Silkscreen suits this kind of stylisation — the medium's flat fields and clean edges support a graphic reading of motion, while [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) gradients model the nocturnal palette. The 'de Nuit' specification places the scene in low, atmospheric light, where deep blues and reds would carry the composition. Within Kasai's wider trajectory, the print occupies the same Mediterranean axis as his Istanbul and Bosphorus series, suggesting it was made during or after his concentrated period of Turkish subjects. The French title, applied to a Levantine theme by a Tokyo-born artist, exemplifies the cosmopolitan layering that characterises his work.