Yay me on noticing the hand! ☺️😆 It is actually possible that it's hers...if she loops her right arm behind her back and then externally rotates her forearm positioning the thumb downwards. (I just experimented and tried to figured that out myself. It is like a twisted yoga bind.) Anyways...I love that you included that witty surprise element in the image.
Again, I got to enjoy a deeper peek into your mind as you further explained your intentions for the symbols in the artwork. Even more with your musings on the element of control issues, or "who's running the show" regarding the ballerina and the show. She's like a wind up music box ballerina in a way...when the curtain goes up and the music goes on, based on years of training and practice plus neurological and physiological patterns that develop as a result - she is triggered to perform. Almost on auto pilot...she can't help herself.
But was that result her doing? Or that of others? In other words is that hand in control hers, or that of some "other" in the shadows. Or both?
I should have remembered, that if there was anyone who could do the trick with the hand, it would be you! Too bad, sean-king wasn't there to take a picture, when you did your experiment.
Again, you put it all in such beautiful words. I like your comparison with the music box and the mechanical parts would point in such a direction as well. You describe the ballerina's appearance on stage exactly the way I thought of it!
Is it all the result of her doing? I deliberately left it open, who's hand it really is... hers in a wild and sort of contorted position? Or just the person moving a handle in the background... I think there are many for it all to work.
❤️