Dancers Among Us by Jordan Matter

“Dancers are storytellers. They’re trained to capture passion with their bodies. They often create a fantasy world or offer us a deeper look into familiar settings. They bring to life what we feel but what most of us, lacking their artistry and athleticism, are unable to express physically” – Jordan Matter, Dancers Among Us (New York: Workman Publishing, 2012)

Whilst photography is not an art form that I have spent a lot of time exploring, I was completely swept away when I discovered the Dancers Among Us collection by photographer Jordan Matter. Assembled into a book that became an instant New York Times bestseller, Dancers Among Us presents a compilation of moments frozen in time that express the unique beauty that is both dancing and living. Not only do the photographs display the wonderful capacity of a dancer’s body, but they do so in an unexpected place – everyday living. This inspirational combination of dance and life reveals the constant presence of creativity and exuberance in the mundane, and in such a way that can help you to overlook the impermanence of life.

The collection in its entirety is huge, so I have decided just to share my top ten favourite photographs in the hope that more people will go on to enjoy the rest!

(All copyright to Jordan Matter).

10. Broadway Bound – New York, NY – Michael Cusumano

I think anyone with an interest in the performing arts has envisaged themselves performing onstage for a career, so I imagine this photo would appeal to anybody who has had that dream (or been lucky enough to make it a reality!). It also seems to represent the idea that there is always the possibility to find art in other aspects of life, and you can still be a performer even if even there is no one there to watch.

9. Forgive Me – Atlanta, GA – Tomas Panto

The intensity and darkness of this photo – especially in comparison to many of the others in the collection – is what gave it a place in my top ten. It definitely moves away from expressing the joy of dance and instead focuses more on the ideas of anguish and pain. It goes to show that dancing can also be a means of conveying and releasing the more difficult emotions in life.

8. Nyack, NY – Rebecca Balbach, Kimberley Morris, Marianna Russell

Even curling up with a good book is an art in itself!

7. Surrender – Baltimore, MD – Rachel Bell

I find this photo quite literally breath-taking. The precarious position of the dancer definitely kicks in my fear of heights, but it goes to show that taking risks and letting yourself be vulnerable is sometimes worth your while (whether that’s in achieving a life goal or hanging off the edge of a building to get the perfect shot!).

6. Brass Ring – San Francisco, CA – Sharon Gallagher

Whilst the blurred effect of this photo make it difficult to look at for more than a few minutes, it had to go in my top ten simply for the elation that the dancer exhibits.

5. Stepping Out with My Baby – New York, NY – Gus Solomons Jr, Carmen de Lavallade

I feel that this photo has a very clear message – life goes on, we all grow old, but that doesn’t mean that pleasure in life has to stop. Whether their pleasure is in dancing or the company of the other person or both, I love the image that this couple is portraying.

4. Prince Edward Island, Canada – Jamie Stark

The contrast between the mud and the elegance of the dancer en pointe is what makes this photo one of my favourites. I think it completely destroys the notion of ballet as a pretty, fragile past-time for little girls and instead shows it for what it is – a slog through physical pain and exertion to present a constant exterior of ease and beauty.

3. Moonlight Sonata – Miami, FL – Eric Bourne, Christina Ilisije

So this photo is in my top three as the “romantic one” (there had to be at least one, after all who can deny the relationship between dance and love?). There is also the depiction of complete trust in the other person – an unspoken requisite for both to be successful.

2. Taken – Sarsota, FL – Danielle Brown, Octavio Martin

I love the image of the female dancer surrounded by the multitude of birds in this photo. To me, it expresses the freedom and abandon that you can experience through dance that is often a rarity in life.

1. New York, NY – Billy Bell, Parisa Khobdeh

A number of elements make this my favourite photo of the collection – the use of the New York Public Library as the background, the perfect penchée by the male dancer, the moment of romance captured in one pose … and the family group next to them who seem completely unaware that they are in the same shot (is this possibly the ultimate photo-bomb?!). On the whole, I think this one really hammers home the tagline of the whole collection: a celebration of joy in the everyday.

‘Life is like dancing: it’s good to have a plan, but be prepared to improvise’ – Anonymous

The ability to improvise around your plans is an essential skill amidst the trials of graduate job hunting, especially in such a competitive and limited industry as the arts. About a month after graduating last summer I developed a fairly simple (and I thought reasonable) plan: get a job in Arts Administration. Seven months on and I have just concluded a three month internship at Lancaster University … in Project Management Administration. This slight deviation from the artistic route may have been unplanned, however after spending several months amongst the tidal wave of highly qualified and over-experienced job-seeking graduates I have learned that you often have to improvise along a side route in order to keep on the intended path.

The internship was actually set up by the Careers department at the university as an opportunity to gain additional working experience in a real-world environment, so there was some method behind the madness. After an unsuccessful attempt to situate the internship in the LICA department (Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts), I was placed in the Facilities Division with the assurance that my work would still incorporate an artistic focus and, fortunately, two of my four assigned projects did.

These two projects provided me with stimulating and challenging opportunities to work on actual assignments within the Facilities Division whilst still engaging with the arts – ideal circumstances considering I was not based within a more artistic setting. My favourite project was undoubtedly the investigation into the need/demand for new outdoor performing arts spaces within a remodelling of the university’s central walkway (fondly known, or maybe not so fondly, as the Spine). From early on in the project there was a particular emphasis on the correlation between performance and community, an aspect that highlighted the arts as a means of fostering relationships and drawing society together – let’s face it, the arts are even more enjoyable when you can appreciate them with someone else! This project also brought me into contact with the LICA department, including representatives of the arts organisation Live at LICA. I could not have asked for a better connection, as the association eventually led to shadowing opportunities with the Box Officer Co-ordinator and Marketing Assistant (both of which have definitely increased my desire to work in the arts!).

My second arts-based project revolved around producing a project proposal for a campus sculpture trail. This was especially interesting as, despite having studied at Lancaster University for three years, I embarked on this project completely unaware that there were any sculptures on campus in the first place. It didn’t take long to discover that this lack of awareness was widespread amongst students and staff alike, so I felt that the project was key in contributing to the cultural awareness at the university. I think my favourite part of this project was discovering the apparently random concrete carving of a tree (that I had passed almost every day during my time as a student) was actually a sculpture inspired by the myth of Daphne and the laurel tree – a myth I had learned about through my literature studies*. This project therefore proved to me that arts and culture can always be found unexpectedly, whether it is in the features of a place you thought you knew or in an unforeseen and unplanned job opportunity.

* For any readers who don’t know, in Greek mythology Daphne was the personification of the laurel, a tree whose leaves (formed into garlands) were particularly associated with Apollo. Daphne lived a pastoral existence, and when pursued by Apollo she prayed for help and was transformed into a laurel. Apollo appropriated the laurel for poets and, in Rome, for triumphs.

Live at LICA website: www.liveatlica.org