Dance Across the USA

"Dance Across the USA" is a collection of dancers from all over America, helping to showcase what is beautiful and inspiring in this country. Covering 22,264 miles, 163 Dancers, 90 consecutive days, 56 locations, & 50 states, Master Photographer Jonathan Givens created this project to show what really makes up America. Diversity that exists both in the physical landscape, and in the dancers who make America their home.The photographs in this book are real. The dancers actually did what you see, in the places shown. The skies are real, the landscape is real, even the dirty feet, are real. There is no digital compositing here, nor are there any trampolines or wires. Using only Canon cameras and flashes, Jonathan quite literally went to the ends of the nation, to work with dancers ranging from 5 to 61. Professionals and amateurs, students and teachers, boys and girls, cat lovers and dog lovers, everyone and anyone was welcome. Over 3000 dancers applied to be a part of the project, and those selected for the book reflect not only the range of what makes up dance in America, but they also showed a love for this country and its wonders."Dance Across the USA" is a fun, beautiful, and inspirational look at America, both its places and its people. It is our differences and our diversity that combine to make us all Americans. From the sandy Florida beaches to the rugged Washington coast, the glaciers of Alaska to Death Valley in California, diversity is the hallmark of what literally makes up America. That diversity is reflected in our citizens, and our dancers. Join Jonathan and the Mighty Buford as they make this historic journey, that no one has ever been crazy enough to try before.

My name is Jonathan Givens, and I'm a, well, I do a lot. It's really down to I have no idea what I want to be when I grow up, if I grow up. My wife says I'm 4. I think that's pretty accurate.I have spent my whole life working in entertainment...first as an actor/dancer/singer, then a technician, then a designer. I've been a choreographer and a director. My career has spanned theater, film, television, circus, McDonald's, and Waffle House. Like many people I know in the arts, I have had to do lots of things to get by. Some pretty cool, others not so much. I am a Certified Professional Photographer, and have earned the degree of Master of Photography, both through the Professional Photographer's Association. In the entertainment world, I am a dual-certified ETCP rigger, a member of the Actor's Equity Association (AEA), and the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE). I am also an American Circus Educators Safety Consultant. AUTHOR HOME: Lauderhill, F