feel it to believe it: rj muna for odc
One of the greatest achievements in the world of professional dance is the ability to make physical and mental rigor look effortless. Dancers combine untold hours of training, rehearsing, and personal tenacity to embody what we often simply call grace—as though their abilities were god-given rather than worked for tirelessly.
RJ Muna has been photographing dance in the Bay Area for over 25 years—he’s just completed a new campaign for ODC’s upcoming season—and his respect for dancers and choreographers has grown in step.
“The sense of control in a dancer’s body is remarkable,” he says, noting how each company and choreographer has their own physical language, as well as each dancer. “Witnessing how dancers react to very simple direction has taught me not to overthink my own movement as a photographer. Like the dancers, I’ve grown my intuition. My sense of when to click the shutter is something I can just feel. I feel it because they’re doing the same thing. We both feel the moment build. It’s really beautiful.”
Muna shares that ODC, which was founded in 1971 by artistic director Brenda Way, often likes to surprise, to give audiences something unconventional. He looks to illustrate this character in his images by modulating lighting to build the mood, and incorporating fabrics or other props that emphasize the energy and flow. These photoshoots take place in his studio, where, as he says, “the dancers are outside of their normal environment and excited to create something special.”
There’s a fine line here, Muna notes, between expression and oversharing. He works hard to capture the emotion of the movement rather than just formal details, to make potential audience-members want to see and feel even more. It’s a balance similar to the dancers’ “make it look easy” mindset. “Too much information doesn’t leave anything to the imagination,” he explains. “My approach has always been to craft the images of these amazing subjects to the highest level—to match their art.”