Ballroom Dancing Photos

Here are some photos of Ballroom dancers at International House, New York. There was some very interesting content and at one point I considered doing a photo essay on it. But I realized my photos showed a disdain for the subjects and out of respect for the people I couldn't do the essay. The ballroom scene made them very happy and that is what mattered. Who cares if it was weird to me.

In fact I thought the whole scene was ridiculous at first. They were living out this time warp fantasy would. Some of the people were dinosaurs both in age and in their perspective. Others were dinosaurs in perspective only, which was even worse. And even as I got to know them and made friends I never quite lost that initial impression.

My photos showed this and I did not enjoy ridiculing them. The photos could be great but to do it at the expense of their dignity wasn't worth it to me since they were nice well intentioned people. The human race has a lot of qualities and to belittle them is to render them as shallow caricatures, something I don't like to do.

The positive aspect of the word "Bigotry" (I'm being academic here) is the understanding that there is difference in the world and what makes one person happy may make another miserable, thus some people should not mix. Of course a bigot believes one way is better than another universally, a "wise bigot" if there were one knows that one way is better than another PERSONALLY.

Even if I photographed a really evil person I am not sure I would focus on their evil. I would probably focus on their humanity. We are all evil and good. That is just a surface level duality. Below that we are one - human. And that is much more interesting and complex.

So anyway, here are a couple of them, shot between 1997 and 1999 at International House in New York City.

ballroom dancing international house new york 1997-1999