“Dancing is the body made poetic.” In 2006 I began visiting NW Ballet School and Company, owned by Marisa Roth and while it took a while to get my ‘timing’ accurate, I find it very satisfying to capture the beauty and grace of dancers and find that it is as edifying as shooting a mountain landscape, or a delicate wildflower. Dancers, in my opinion, are an exquisite blend of artistry and athleticism, strength and grace. I have had the privilege and honor to photograph many of the dancers from AzureVision, a modern dance collective (which I have written about previously in this blog) and recently was contacted by Marisa to shoot a rehearsal of Mid-Summer’s Night Dream, which was performed on Mother’s Day weekend in Bigfork at the Bigfork Playhouse. I shot for two nights, the first being a technical rehearsal which helped me to get the lighting levels for night two. Shooting dancers is a little like shooting trap or skeet, in that timing is key to getting the shot at just the right instant…at the peak of the jump, lift or extension. These people were amazing! See for yourself.
