Ballet Photography Classes

I teach other photographers how to do ballet photography. Usually, I say dance photography, but I once got asked on Instagram why it’s never any other form of dance besides ballet, and the answer is I don’t know how to teach any other form besides ballet! Ballet is so incredibly technical that once you learn the rules, it’s easy to see where you are going wrong. For example, I know as a non-dancer that if a ballerina’s feet are not pointed in the photo, I should just throw that one out. I have no idea how that translates to tap, jazz, or hip-hop. And I can’t teach what I don’t know!

So in October, I went to Massachusetts with SIGMA lenses and Hunt’s Photo to teach ballet photography. Teaching other photographers is incredibly fun for me. I get to nerd out about all kinds of gear and other finer points of photography. Ask me anything about lenses, ask me anything about how I do something, I am an open book. So these classes were all-day classes, a deep dive into dance photography. We started off with vocabulary so students could learn about turnout and pointed feet, they learned the difference between a passé and an arabesque, they learned the difference in jumps between a Firebird and a sissone’, and then we worked on creative fun things. It was three days back to back in Melrose and Fall River. I loved having my students for longer than an hour and a half and a lot of them told me it was the best class they’d ever been to! Here are my images from those days!