Detail of a Female Dancer in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, April 2009

Female Dancer, Western Han dynasty (206 b.c.–9 a.d.), 2nd century b.c.
China
Earthenware with slip and pigments
H. 21 in. (53.3 cm)
Charlotte C. and John C. Weber Collection, Gift of Charlotte C. and John C. Weber, 1992 (1992.165.19)

This figure is a quintessential example of early Chinese sculpture, which found its highest expression in the third to first centuries B.C. Unlike the geometric approach of the Greeks, the Chinese sculptors sought to capture the "life spirit" of the human subject, concentrating on facial expression and a posture that suggests movement—in this instance, a moment in a dance.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1992.165.19