Groove
2017
About
Commissioned by the International Center Of Photography, “Groove” features extreme-slow-motion portraits of men, women and children, captured in the state of joy and abandon that so often accompanies expressive, personal dancing (most of the subjects are non-professional and untrained). Throughout the casting process, subjects were asked to bring in music that would inspire them to move, dance and groove. The fascinating thing about watching people dance is the simultaneous build-up of expectations from the beat, and the unpredictability of the dancers’ emotional and physical reactions to it. Watching someone enter “the zone” in which they react to the music in a state of near trance – un-choreographed and, ideally, without self-awareness – reveals a certain truth about the person that can’t easily be otherwise shown. It’s a vulnerable state, one that is not often experienced with the body in everyday situations. And, paradoxically, it is a state explored in public at celebrations such as weddings, school dances and somewhat more anonymously, in a club. In each of these situations, something very deep and personal is put on display when, according to that famous invocation, we dance as if no one were watching. The work features 100 subjects drawn from the greater New York City area.