Ecstatic Dancers -- it's getting harder

This photograph from a street dance in Eugene Oregon in 1996 started me on a project that I call "Ecstatic Dancers" -- people who really enjoy dancing (not necessarily well or with exceptional skill). Between the joy of the movement and of the music they enter into sort of an altered state of consciousness.

I'm a big fan of community festivals and street fairs so it wasn't long until I had enough Ecstatic Dancers photographs to make a respectable show. Seattle's Folklife Festival, Solstice Festival, Pride Festival, and Bumbershoot were exceptionally fertile events. These festivals featured several sound stages and allowed plenty of room in front of and around the stage for dancing. There was often impromptu dancing surrounding street performers.

How times change. The emphasis of Bumbershoot has changed to a small number of big name entertainers in concert venues rather than lots of local talent. (Bumbershoot also now forbids "professional" cameras -- those with interchangeable lenses.) All these festivals have drastically reduced the space available for dancing around their sound stages.

April's Print of the Month is from a 2007 negative that I just got around to printing. I still catch one every now and again -- the latest at 2017 Folklife -- but between the reduced space and the increased crowds it's getting harder.

"Scene Through a Glass"

In the unlikely circumstance that you are wandering through beautiful downtown Burien stop in at the community center to see 14 prints from my "Scene Through a Glass" series on the Burien City gallery wall just inside the main entrance.

This print (not in the show since I just printed it yesterday) is from Seattle's Pier 57 "Miners' Landing" The stairway is a reflection and the lights are from the carousel inside the pier building. They will be up until the end of April.