Introduction
Dance photography is the act of catching movement, motion, and expression through a lens. Whether the dancer is having a conversation with the photographer or the environment around them, there is always a conversation taking place.
When it comes to dance photography, there is never an excess of creativity. It is not necessary to keep the full body in frame; The photographer has the freedom to play with the distance between them and the dancer. This provides variations with framing and how the spectator views dance.
The dancer does not necessarily have to acknowledge the presence of the photographer and can be in their own “world.” It is then that the photographer can “observe as an outsider,” and can photograph the dancer in a way that no one is watching.
Direction
When directing dancers in a shoot, dance terminology comes naturally to me because of my 17+ years of dance training. I started wondering how dance could have a simplified language that would allow any photographer, with no background in dance, to be able to shoot dance with ease. One important factor that can help in this situation is getting a willing dancer.
What I mean by willing dancer is someone who can create and play with movement without the fear of looking ridiculous.; A dancer who is not afraid to take risks and break boundaries.
One way to shoot dance is by allowing the dancer to improvise or freestyle with or without music, depending on the dancer’s preference. As they are dancing and going through movements, you can snap away and hope to capture everything at the right time. This is a very common way to approach dance photography but is not the most fulfilling way to do so. There is nothing wrong with choosing to do it in this matter, but what if you do not have the accessibility of shooting a million photos to get a lucky shot? What if you are shooting on film, for example, and you have a limited amount of exposures? You would then want to be strategic about your shots and be more proactive as a photographer. This is when movement direction plays a huge role and that is why I have come up with my top ten prompts that can help facilitate movement for any dancer regardless of the photographer’s knowledge of dance vocabulary
Top Ten Prompts
Close your eyes, and move with the least amount of effort as possible. Minuscule movements only.
Think of five poses and as slow as possible, cycle through them.
Think of the ugliest creature you can think of, maybe one from a movie, and move only in the way you think they would move.
Take up as much space as possible and move as big as you possibly can.
The floor is lava and you are trying to jump as high and far away from it as possible.
You are in a box and the space is constricting.
The room is filled with thick molasses, get from point A to point B.
Think of your favorite song, and move according to the lyrics. It can be as literal as possible or representative of the lyrics.
Think of the last person you said “I love you” to and describe their personality through movement.
Think of a word you said today. Try to spell it out with just your legs.
Depending on the style of dance you are going for, a technical dancer is not always required. Although it certainly helps, especially in Ballet, it is not necessary. Technique can look pretty with the right shapes and lines, but often times technique can be restrictive to the dancer’s actions and full potential. There is so much of “pretty dance,” that I have had my fair share of photographing, that gets repetitive and unoriginal. This is where your creativity can take full control and suggest ideas that come to mind. You can even come up with games that inspire a feeling in your dancer that makes them move a certain way. Dance Direction can even be as silly as possible! My prompts are just suggestions and can be easily interchangeable with your own ideas. Take prompt number two for example:
*Think of five poses and as slow as possible, cycle through them
variation 1) Think of five poses and as fast as possible, cycle through them.
variation 2) Think of five poses and as fast as possible, cycle through them, changing the order of each cycle.
variation 3) Think of five poses and as slow as possible, cycle through them in the opposite order.
Outcome
The possibilities are endless! You can even come up with your own prompts and use mine as a reference. The goal is to allow photographers and dancers, alike, to feel comfortable communicating in a movement language that can easily be understood by one another. This is not a way to dumb down dance by not knowing its terminology, but a way to create a world in which the dancer can express themselves with the photographer’s vision. Along the way, photographers can pick up dance vocabulary and can eventually apply it to dance direction in their next shoot.
Although these prompts are intended mostly for photographers, I find that dancers can get just as much out of them. Finding new ways for dancers to improvise by going through a series of games allows for a form of structured improvisation to take place. It is territory that we do not come across often, so when an opportunity arises where the dancer does not have to do all the work creating movement, a sense of pressure is released.
From my own experience, I feel as though dancers can get equally as nervous as photographers about doing a shoot. Neither one wants to feel like they do not know what they are doing in front of one another, but frankly, we all get nervous and not always know what to expect from the other. This is why a mutual understanding of an artistic vision is key to setting the basis of a shoot and with the use of prompts, the rest will follow and fall into place.