Dancers among us

Have you ever wondered how everyday situations could be transformed by a little bit of dance creativity ? New York photographer Jordan Matter has taken the ordinary and made it extraordinary, with Dancers Among Us, a project which started back in 2009 and since then documents dancers leaping, spinning, lifting and kicking, right in the midst of otherwise ordinary moments of daily life.

A portrait photographer Jordan started the project by asking members of the Paul Taylor and Martha Graham Dance Companies to pose for him in iconic Manhattan locations like the Yankee stadium or the Public Library. For the realization of the photographs no props or other technical means (eg. Trampolines, etc.) were used.

Jordan, a professional actor initially, was drawn into photography literally by circumstance. In his own words : “One day I was at a friend's house, looking through her head shots. Not one photograph said the slightest thing about her. They were very generic, very studio and very boring. When she told me what she had paid, I almost choked on my Starbucks. Outrageous! I've been the victim of that a few times myself. The next day I grabbed my camera, took her up to the roof and fired off two quick rolls before the sun set. That was it. I was hooked, whether I knew it or not…”

And continues : “…Her agents soon sent me their clients, who in turn recommended me to their friends, and a photography career was born. The Today Show, Tyra Banks, MSNBC, CBS, NBC and the BBC have since profiled me, and my work has been featured in many magazines, newspapers and galleries throughout the world. I enjoy the process, I love what I do and I consider myself very lucky. That's the whole story.”

Jordan collated all the photos and has a book released under the same title, Dancers Among Us”. The book is organized around themes of dreaming, loving, playing, exploring, grieving, working and living, essentially constituting a a celebration of life, that is fresh, surprising, original and universal.

To get a visual idea of how the project was carried out, see the following feature video, available also at the project’s site.