I had the pleasure of photographing for the Pilgrim School’s recent dance recital. The Pilgrim School is located in mid-city Los Angeles and is a hidden jewel of a school. The school has a very strong arts program and they say that “everyone dances at the Pilgrim School”. The school covers early education through high school, so the dancers’ ages ranged from the very young to the about to graduate high school.

Photographing dance performance is challenging and even more so for the amateur dancer. I captured as many choreographically satisfying moments as possible as well as emotional and candid moments. I was sweating bullets by the end of the performance as I did a lot of running from one side of the audience to the other and pulling back and moving forward to get a variety of shots. I used my camera finger in quick responses to the music and dancer’s timing.

I had the opportunity to combine my first and second loves: dancing and photography. I was chosen to do this project in part because I was a professional ballet dancer for 13-years where I honed my eye interpreting choreography. Now as a photographer I have both the eye of a dancer and that of a photographer to enhance my ability to capture the dancer in their most expressive moment in time.

Here are some of the highlights from the performance: