Over the course of the last few years, I've had the pleasure of photographing the athletes that inhabit the world of competitive dance.  A wide range of age groups has enabled a comprehensive peek into the evolution of artists which utilize their bodies to express the spectrum of human emotion.

 

The work can be tedious and tiresome.  One can sit for eight to sixteen hours a day, snapping away, capturing somewhere between forty to one hundred images per dance.  By the end of the day, your thumb and snapping finger are numb and the dancers have melded into one colorful blob moving to music that has fused into a bassy, poppy, melancholic monster of sound.

From another perspective, however, the work has presented a number of opportunities that are fulfilling and technically developmental for a photographer.  One learns the language of the dancer, the moves and moments before launching into a jump - honing in on capturing specific instances, such as Sautés, Jetés and Center Leaps; essentially enhancing the 'action photography' component of the medium.  The skill of timing and rapid setting adjustment are also sharpened.  This meshing of technical elements between the camera and dancer enrich the allure of understanding and appreciating the world of dance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A world of motion and music, the atmosphere is an energetic pulse - vibrant and dynamic.  The judges (almost always dancers themselves) are usually bouncing and bobbing in their seats, busting out with their own moves during breaks and in-between numbers.  The selected music of a piece is an essential companion to the movements of the dancer onstage.  The melody gives way to vulnerability, jubilation, fear and emphatic political statements.  Tempo changes, punctuated beats and rhythms merge with the dancer, pulling the audience in for a visceral, compelling experience. 

The work which goes into these numbers can't be understated and are a testament to dedication and perseverance.  Months and months of practice come down to one moment for these athletes – repeating the steps and moves all the way up to go time.  Tears of ecstacy, and sometimes pain run down the faces and into the shoulders of embracing teammates.  The liberating  sensation of completion is celebrated amongst the community of competitors, as the time and energy invested in their performances reaches its apex.

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The opportunity to photograph and document the competitive dance universe has ultimately been fun and, in many ways, inspiring.  I've made friends and have had some lovely conversations with the people that populate this special world - a world of expression transmitted through anatomy in motion, companionship, community and comradery.  Capturing the muscle movement, flexibility, leaping, bending poetry... reaching, kicking, tapping, shouting, expressions of agony, elation and everything in between.

 

​All of this is what makes dance, to me, the purest form of artistic expression.