Dancers Doing Real Life Stuff

Photographer Jordan Matter brings us Dancers Among Us, a photo series showing professional dancers doing everyday stuff. Well, everyday stuff if your idea of catching the subway involves flying across the platform in a full split. The pictures turn shopping, working, showering, and ordinary city errands into acrobatic performances. As you can see, these people are extremely talented. I used to think touching my toes was impressive. Apparently, I have been aiming way too low.

The fun comes from the mismatch. Most of us stand in line, carry groceries, and try not to trip over the curb. Matter puts dancers in those same situations and catches them bending, leaping, or stretching as if gravity signed a special agreement with them. The result is both beautiful and a little suspicious. Are these people missing a few vertebrae? Because I would appreciate an explanation before trying anything remotely similar.

Ordinary Places, Completely Ridiculous Dance Moves

One of the series’ earliest scenes featured a dancer dressed like a commuter, apparently rushing across a Times Square subway platform with a spectacular airborne split. The artist’s official gallery also shows performers posed in streets, stores, and other familiar spaces. Those surroundings matter. A high kick onstage is impressive; the same move next to someone waiting for a train makes you stop and stare. The dancers look as if they have accidentally wandered into a world where everyone else has forgotten how to dance.

There is a real sense of humor in the photographs. A pose that might look formal under stage lights becomes gloriously strange when the dancer is carrying shopping bags or dealing with normal daily business. The subjects are not just showing off their flexibility; they are telling tiny stories with their bodies. Meanwhile, I struggle to bend down and pick up a dropped pen without making an embarrassing noise. We clearly belong to different athletic species. Watching them turn everyday errands into graceful movements is enough to make my usual walk to the grocery store feel like a missed opportunity.

How Jordan Matter Made Everyday Life Look Magical

Matter has explained that his young son’s excitement about ordinary things helped inspire the project. He wanted to capture the feeling of being fully alive in an otherwise routine moment. The photos later became the 2012 book Dancers Among Us: A Celebration of Joy in the Everyday. The publisher describes how the first subway shoot helped establish the idea, with a member of the Paul Taylor Dance Company dressed in normal commuter clothes. That sounds like a wonderfully unusual morning for everybody on the platform.

And before you assume someone Photoshopped the impossible bits, the publisher says the photos relied on real dancers rather than digital tricks or trampolines. That does not make the movements look any less impossible. It just means the credit belongs to some exceptionally skilled humans and a photographer with excellent timing. Go enjoy the pictures, then return to your regular life. I will be over here congratulating myself for successfully climbing the stairs without pulling anything.