I haven’t ever thought about whether ballet dancers acted normally in normal situations or not – Black Swan kind of made me assume they didn’t and made me not really want to think about them at all – but it seems like they are pretty eccentric, at least looking at this photo set from photographer Jordan Matter.

Matter had the idea for the project after watching his son Hudson play with a yellow toy bus and some plastic figurines and wondering why that unbridled enthusiasm and creativity was often replaced by boredom, cynicism and indifference as people grew from children into adults. He wanted to create a set of photographs that would capture the world as it was seen through his son’s eyes and feature images of people that were alive and in the moment and celebrating all the emotions of everyday life.

Shortly after making this resolution, Matter witnessed what he described as ‘an extraordinary dance production’ and he decided that dancers and specifically ballet dancers would be the subject of his photo collection. He subsequently spent three years travelling across America and visiting a bunch of cities and meeting up with dancers and capturing shots of them using their talents and just having a blast in everyday life.

The book ‘Dancers Among Us was released last year and was a New York Times bestseller. It was also featured as one of the best books of 2012 by Barnes and Noble, Oprah Magazine and Amazon. Check out some of the best images from it below and on the next pages.

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