The Living World of Dance: Artistry in Motion

This book is for anyone who loves light, space, movement and the hand of a sure artisan. Yes, it is a book about dance, but that's like saying that the book of Genesis is a book about snakes. Jack and Linda Vartoogian beautifully convey the joyful, aching essence of dance -- human expression at its most serious, profane, holy, silly and transcendent. And they do it in a big book that should be very expensive. I have dozens of coffee table books on the shelf. This one stays on the coffee table. Why? I love this book. As a sometime professional photographer, magazine editor and full-time writer, I recognize the obstacles that the Vartoogians met and overcame. What eludes me is their unerring sense of timing and composition. Three decades ago I spent two semesters at BU learning how to capture motion with a 35 mm camera. By then, the Vartoogians were veterans. My good professor could have saved his breath by letting me shadow this gifted couple to Japan, Turkey, China, Korea, Africa, Turkey, to the swamps of Louisiana, to the glitter of Studio 54, the grit of Brooklyn's mean streets and the grandeur of the Lincoln Center and Covent Garden. What a fantasy-education! But now we have "The Living World of Dance" and all of us can see how it is done: break dancing, line dancing, ballet, butoh, tango, tap, flamenco, whirling dervishes -- to feebly hint at the scope of this book. Color photos dominate, but the b & w selection is ample and perfect. The text by Carol Cooper Garey is just enough to inform us without distracting us. The dust jacket mentions the Vartoogians' 1997 Nureyev exhibition which I saw on one of my rare visits to NYC. It was all black and white (mostly Tri-X, I later learned) with utterly hypnotic grays. Some of these prints are in the book and remain my favorites. Linda's photo of the late master at the bar speaks volumes about our loss. Being in the business, I check the byline or photo credit before I look at a story or photo. "Vartoogian" has appeared for years in the New York Times beneath black and white images. Sometimes I would catch a color shot in a national and or international magazine. I'll spot a dancer on a cover and fumble to the credits. Hmmmm. If it's not Jack and Linda, it is someone who studied them or just exhibited a momentary flash of genius. Finally this book is more than dance and pictures. The Vartoogians' world is a whole world. This perspective was eloquently presented in 1955 with the publication the "The Family of Man." (Museum of Modern Art.) Revisiting that landmark volume I was struck by the number of dance photos selected by Edward Steichen for the book. Perhaps this book subconsciously inspired Jack and Linda. The same love of humanity shines forth in both books. Carl Sandburg, in the Forward of "Family" could be speaking of "The Living World of Dance" when he writes: "A camera testament, a drama of the grand canyon of humanity, an epic woven of fun, mystery an