Movement

On being a dancer.

The other day I had the wonderful opportunity of photographing a friend of mine who is an incredible dancer. More than that she is a truly a beautiful person in the way that she thinks and speaks and moves in the world. Her self expression, in the form of dance, has always moved me and evoked emotions in the way only true art is capable of doing.
She puts countless hours and literally her life into this art form, and wrote a poem describing, stunningly, how she experiences this.

Here is what it is like to be a dancer in her words, along with some of my favourite photographs from that day:

I want to be known.
I want to be known. 
I want to be known. 
I want to be known down to every ache and tear and turn. 
I want to create meaning with every word in my mouth and callus on my foot. 
I want to delve into the beauty and mystery surrounding us, with people who set my heart ablaze. 
I want to be vast as the air and gentle as the breeze, and I want to burn as the sun that sears the colour out of my skin. 
I want to feel the way the ocean feels.
Completely. 
Utterly and without limit or hesitation. 

I do not want to be small. 
God, do not let me be small. 
Do not let me fall victim to words that paint my reality in greys or actions that stamp down the expanse of who I am.
There is honesty buried in every atom and I ache to feel it.
To move within it.
Do not let me build walls that trap me at the end of my nerve cells.
For there is more.
For there is more.
For there is more.

Every moment is a revelation of life that sends me gasping. 
God keep me soft. 
Keep me soft. 
Keep me soft. 
Let me flow, and sink, and burn, and crash. 
For nothing is anything but gloriously alive. 

A massive thanks to Chesney Stanfield for sharing her words and art form with us, and a massive thanks to you for taking the time to read and look through this photoblog!

I hope Chesney's words and these images resonate with you in a way that is meaningful.