Sometime in the summer of 2021, I was searching for references to the word “ballet dancer.”
There were two which interested me – a novel called “Ballet Dancers” by Miřenka Čechová
(a dancer, a choreographer..), and a painter Edgar Degas (1834-1917).
I read the novel and I took Degas apart bit by bit.
There are people in this world who know his life and work
in admirable detail (exhibition curators).
Facts and things logically derived from them but also conjectures.
We cannot see inside people’s heads.
To understand other people’s thoughts we need to get on their wavelength.
But to fully understand we need to live and breathe it too.
Dance is undoubtedly a phenomenon of youth.
In society, however, I mostly perceive it as a commercial affair.
And that exactly is the proverbial tip of the iceberg.
Because the most interesting part remains hidden from most people.
The things hard to grasp but present
such as emotions and the beauty of youth,
spontaneity, the uniqueness of the experienced moment …
Someone plays golf; I take photos. It makes me happy.
More precisely, I photograph the education of youth to dance.
My work mainly involves students from Elementary Art Schools,
which are established by the state.
There are 538 such schools in the CR, though not all of them offer dance programs.
And as Albert Einstein said, only a happy person can make another person happy too.
And at the same time, one can do a bit for society and provide feedback,
and thus also a goal, for adolescents.
Photographing young beautiful girls, however, can lead to misunderstanding, envy,
persecution and discrimination.
The way we see the world reflects who we are.
“The most beautiful thing in the world are not things, but moments.”
Karel Čapek
Josef Kuna – Kroměříž – The Czech Republic