In 1913 Severini went to the coastal town of Anzio, Italy, to convalesce. It was here that he was inspired to paint Sea=Dancer. The pure colors in choppy brushstrokes derive from Neo-Impressionism, which was still fashionable when Severini first settled in Paris in 1906. The technique gives fluidity and vibrancy to this joyous subject in which the dancer and the sea are fused—the dancer’s costume likened to the crashing of the waves. The sea cannot be contained within the image, and the waves lick the edge of the picture frame, bursting into the viewer's space.