Wild Dance

I like to keep space for personal work so as to keep my creativity fresh. Last week I photographed  this extraordinary contemporary dancer who is like a wild creature. It was electrifying just to be in the room with her as she created her unique improvised dance routines. In the images below I wanted to capture a sense of wildness and urbanness, and how the two co-exist both in harmony and in conflict. Of course, these images couldn’t be further from wedding photography, but the level of skill required for dance photography is very useful for a wedding photographer.  Working with dance photographer Hilary Shedel in her workshop, I learnt to choreograph a dancer and anticipate the picture that I was looking for. In the same way as Hilary has to anticipate the dancer’s every move, I have to anticipate every player in a wedding and know instinctively where they will be and when to take the photographs. A wedding is a fast moving event and requires total concentration of the photographer. With Hilary we learnt to anticipate where a dancer’s jump will be at its zenith, and press the shutter a millisecond before so that you get the perfect moment illuminated by flash.