Dancers Among Us: A Celebration of Joy in the Everyday

Collects pictures of dancers striking poses in everyday places and while doing everyday things, including in libraries, on subway platforms, at restaurants, and on beaches.
This book showcases color photographs of dancers (mostly but not entirely from ballet) showing off their moves while posed in everyday settings. They perch on roadsigns, leap on sidewalks, shoot pool from impossible angles, and are often caught by the camera of photographer Jordan Matter at heights that seem either impossible to survive or immune to gravity. All know how to put to good use the professional dancer's ability to seem effortless in the most effortful positions. The effect is sometimes inspiring and sometimes funny. In short explanations of most shoots at the end of the book, the author proves none of the photos are doctored. The pictures are divided by theme: dreaming, loving, playing, exploring, and so on, captioned for commercial appeal, and separated by short essays in the inspirational-writing category by the author about being the parent of a young son. There is kitsch here, but also amazing images, as well as unexpected mischief: Michelle Fleet multitasks upside down in a cubicle, Charles-Louis Yoshiyama flies busily to NASA, Paul Busch orders coffee en pointe in a gray flannel suit and toe shoes. Annotation ©2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
The mystery of the body in motion. The surprise of seeing what seems impossible. And the pure, joyful optimism of it all. Dancers Among Us presents one thrilling photograph after another of dancers leaping, spinning, lifting, kicking—but in the midst of daily life: on the beach, at a construction site, in a library, a restaurant, a park. With each image the reader feels buoyed up, eager to see the next bit of magic.Photographer Jordan Matter started his Dancers Among Us Project by asking a member of the Paul Taylor Dance Company to dance for him in a place where dance is unexpected. So, dressed in a commuter’s suit and tie, the dancer flew across a Times Square subway platform. And in that image Matter found what he’d been searching for: a way to express the feeling of being fully alive in the moment, unself-conscious, present.Organized around themes of work, play, love, exploration, dreaming, and more, Dancers Among Us celebrates life in a way that’s fresh, surprising, original, universal. There’s no photoshopping here, no trampolines, no gimmicks, no tricks. Just a photographer, his vision, and the serendipity of what happens when the shutter clicks.