urban ballerina.

A dear friend of mine contacted me a few months ago, asking to do a session for her daughter. Not just any session. Her daughter just graduated into her Pointe shoes for ballet. And for any ballerina this is a huge step, and one that takes a ton of work to get too. They both are rightfully proud.

It has been months since I had seen either one of them, and even then it was brief. When she showed up to the ally where her Ballet Academy was I was doing my best to switch into photog mode. The night before was long and hard, and I arrived on only 2 hours of sleep with my 5 yo in tow. Needless to say I was slow going. That all changed within an instant. She stood in the famous purple doorway of her Academy and struck her first pose. My jaw dropped. I woke up and I never stopped shooting. At the young age of 10, I did not expect so much grace, strength or elegance out of a little girl. Her daughter is the same age as mine. But in those shoes, she is light years older. Just as my daughter is on a horse. I had chills most the time and just couldn’t believe how much grace she had. Her dreams are to be an Prima Ballerina…and if she keeps at this pace, I will be one of the first in line to buy tickets to see her. We took an Urban approach to this session. And I have a feeling we are going to have to get together to do a super girly one too. But the contrast of delicate vs. grunge makes me giddy as a photographer. She was a trooper, and her mom too (she had to carry her from location to location on her back since walking in toe shoes is quite hard). Thank you both for letting me play, and for being you. And mom, we have to catch up again soon! Sorry these are later than I thought :).