“Our first dance, the waltz…”
The Wisconsin State Dance Championships (WSDC) is just around the corner. After a two-year hiatus because of the COVID-19 pandemic, dancers from around the country will gather once again in the elegant Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee, and I will be among them both as a competitor and as a photographer. I have paid several thousand dollars for the privilege. Whether I make any of that back from my photography remains to be seen.
So why do I do this? In my lifetime I have been a half-way decent swimmer, surfer, skier, bicyclist and a reasonably competent martial artist. I added dance to my repertoire of physical activities in 2015, a year after the passing of my wife. All of these activities have one thing in common: Liberty. At their best, they offer moments of freedom from the internal dialog that steps between us and the experience of life in the moment.
Jean-Paul Sartre wrote in Being and Nothingness that consciousness was an inherently negative experience. That is, it’s always looking outward, discovering itself by what it is not. It seeks the immediate experiential awareness of a tree or a rock, which simply are. The closest humans get to that, he said, is in moments of ecstasy or extreme pain. Perhaps. But I think the activities I’ve participated in come close at times for those who pursue them with intensity. Competitive ballroom dancing certainly does. When done well, you merge with your partner and adapt on the fly to the changing competition floor, all in sync with the music. When the music stops the flood of endorphins washes over you like a riptide.
This is what I try to capture in my ballroom dance photography. Whether the dancers hit perfect form or not is of secondary consideration. I try to put the viewer inside the partnership. My work recently won three of 10 top spots in the prestigious Pas de Deux Photography Contest, performance division. I will be shooting the professional dancers competing at WSDC, which runs April 20-24 this year. I also am offering portraits, which has been described as the most challenging of photographic endeavors. The great photographer Paul Caponigro said, “It’s one thing to make a picture of what a person looks like, it’s another thing to make a portrait of who they are.”
Stay tuned to see how things turn out. But it will be a few weeks before I get things edited. I will be competing in the Emerald Ball Dancesport Championships in Los Angeles, which runs April 26-May 1. (I won’t be shooting the event.) I will take a brief vacation to visit with some family members and friends afterward. I expect to get the WSDC editing done upon my return to Minnesota, though I might rush some preliminary edits for those who need images right away.
A bit of news: I am exploring the expansion of my photography business to ballet schools and competitions in and around the Twin Cities. I’ll keep you posted on how that progresses. If you’re interested, please contact me.
Meantime, I remain available for portraits, marketing photos and headshots. Drop me a line if you’re looking for some professional images, shot on location or in the studio.
