Beverley Abramson

Beverley Abramson, an award winning Canadian photographer based in Toronto, is making her mark with exhibitions and publications in the international arena.

Gotta Dance: the Exotic Language of the Body, her major work for over seven years, is a celebration of music and dance showcasing images selected from various portfolios of diverse and unusual dance forms and cultures. This evolving project was launched at the early part of her photographic career after Abramson experienced the sounds of Cuba’s legendary Buena Vista Social Club. Captivated and inspired not only by the music of these aging musicians but also by their renewed rise to fame, she was drawn to Cuba where she had the privilege of making photographs during and after their performances. While witnessing the wild abandon and spontaneous dancing of their audiences she discovered her passion and thereafter became immersed in her study on the universality of music and the relationship between sound, motion and emotion. This paved the way to entering the world of performing artists — dancers, musicians, and singers — during performances and in intimate and often chaotic surroundings backstage.

Abramson’s dance portfolio, beginning with Cuban cabaret, spans an array of dance forms and cultures that now includes international competitive ballroom and Latin American dance, Texas two-stepping, Toronto’s exotic dance, Brazilian samba and capoeira, Spanish flamenco, synchronized water ballet competitions, Israel and New York’s classical and modern dance, and Burlesque in New York. Her work, both soulful and playful, expresses the artistry, magnetism and athleticism of dance.

As a social documentarian and versatile photo essayist, Abramson’s humanistic stories - expressions of daily life within disparate cultures - reveal a distinct style marked by empathy and wit. Her socio-cultural portfolio on the Middle East during the last decade, particularly at the height of the second intifada, is a reflection of her determination to investigate resilience and compassion within a complex and diverse society.

Subsequent to her first book, Bawdy Language: Exotic Dance, other publications based on the theme of motion are: Off We Go! for young children, McClelland Stewart/Tundra Books, March 2006 as well as a second edition Feb 2010; and a work in progress, Gotta Dance: the Exotic Language of the Body.

Abramson’s photographic prints and books have been awarded recognition internationally through juried competitions, publications and exhibitions and by being exhibited and collected in galleries, museums and private collections worldwide.

Abramson’s venture into photography began in Paris and Provence in 1996 while on an intensive photographic workshop. This introduction to the medium by distinguished museum and gallery curators and specialists was the catalyst for new directions. She left a long-standing profession as a counselor in career management at the University of Toronto to continue her studies in photography while launching a private photographic practice, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 2005 from Toronto’s Ryerson University.