Born to Dance

Description:

A celebration of what it means to be young and full of possibility and to live life joyfully, featuring gorgeous color photographs of young dancers (ages 4-17) by Dancers Among Us photographer Jordan Matter.

Paperback

Expected publication: October 2nd 2018 by Workman Publishing

My Review:

“Dance is storytelling and a language; it is a means of expressing emotions, both powerful and beautiful. Dance requires you to build your problem-solving and critical thinking skills. Dance is multicultural. It transcends boundaries; it creates and connects friends” 
-Holly Hatcher-Frasier (Foreword)

This book beautifully captures young dancers on and off stage. Everyday life seems inseparable from a dancer’s heart/body connection. Each young person featured here told the photographer that they were born to dance. Dance had chosen them.

With a great eye and a quick finger at the cam, Jordan Matter captures dancers posing / jumping in natural everyday activities like playing at the park, the pool or in arcades, as well as in unconventional dance spaces like restaurants or places of transportation. Not a stone stays unturned in a dancers mind….one can dance while shoveling snow, eating ice-cream, at stores, the beach, in hotel rooms, on Christmas, in school, in museums, at the doctors, or on the job.

There are about 9 chapters dedicated to specific themes highlighting dancer’s emotions or thoughts such as love, dreams, growing up etc. Most all pictures have beautiful captions or poetry to go along, and on some of the pages you can use a QR reader to gain more insight about the photo shoots. 

***

This book is absolutely true and gorgeous. If you have known, or are the parent of a wiggling little critter turning pirouettes in all of places, then you might have a dancer on your hand to support. Not everyone is born to dance, but those that are, know it. For them, there is no separation of any kind in the world, just dance. And the images as well as the dedications beautifully illustrate it. 

As a former dancer of 30 years, I found a little me reflected in these pages. Capturing the joy, dreams and hopes shared with other dancers, forgetting the hard grueling training hours as they are outweighed by the love and need to express oneself full heartedly, body, mind and soul. Dancers are passionate & disciplined leaving spectators at awe and enthralled. Jordan Matter's photography portrait of young dancers doing naturally what they love complements this beautifully. 

I received a digital copy of 'Born to Dance' from NetGalley in exchange of an honest review. All opinions are my own. Thank you!