Canberräng 2023 - Swing Dance Event

Canberräng - 2023 - B&W Film & Colour Film

Being at a dance event often feels like a dream, a dream about the end of the world. There’s such a revelry of excitement and celebration the imagined climax must be nothing other than the imminent end of the world. All the expression, drama, joy and enthusiasm is overwhelming. It feels like we’re going out with a bang! There’s always a stern slap of displacement back to reality when the event ends. Everyone present dies a little on the inside. Perhaps that’s the “end of the world” I experience, this imagined world we all created for a moment with a flurry ceases to exist. There’s such an abundance of creativity within the dance scene, the celebration is always spectacular.

With that being said the sobering reality of current swing dancing events appears to be a sold out sign within minutes of ticket openings. This is a distinct challenge for the scene because new dancers need access to these events as well as access to the best dancers in the scene. That access is what inspires people to become better dancers, and the scene dies without fresh blood. In general I feel like the scene is becoming more creative, more accessible and more strongly rooted within its history. I hope it’s able to meet the venue challenges of today in order to grow, create and evolve. It has so much to offer and the community is so important to so many people.

The best thing about Canberräng 2023 was the music. Perhaps that’s a biased statement; in the lead up to the event I tore my calf muscle and couldn’t dance. So for me, the best thing about Canberräng 2023 was the music. Fortunately I had the opportunity to photograph even though my mobility was limited. If not I would have gone home because everyone was having way too much fun. Without being able to dance that would have been too much to bear.

Below are the film photographs I took throughout the event. Developing the film is always exciting, unfortunately there was more bad news, half the medium format film I shot didn’t sync with my flash. This meant blank frames, which was a huge frustration. There was one frame, in particular, that I had high expectations for that didn’t turn out. I guess it will live forever in my mind as the greatest photograph I have never taken. So here’s to better flash syncing in the future, and here’s to Canberräng 2023. I hoe you enjoy the photos, there’s a mixture of black and white, and colour film, as well as 5 digital photos thrown in to boot.