The Spirit of Dance

I’ve always been intrigued by the idea of capturing multiple points in time within a single frame. For me, there is a certain allure when viewing an image knowing that my gaze is moving through time as well as space. My work presented here, “The Spirit of Dance,” attempts to trace the movement of dancers and hold that movement within a static frame. In this way, the lines and shapes that dancers create with their bodies through motion is captured. These images are all long exposures. The dance movement is primary, but sometimes I move the camera as well. There are times when I want to match the dancer’s motion so I’m not using a tripod. Sometimes I get to watch a piece several times and make note of where and when to shoot. Other times this is not possible, such as with improvised pieces, and I instead rely on experience and intuition. The majority of post-production work is only cropping and toning. Removing pixels is rare in my work and is limited to very specific circumstances. I never alter a dancer’s body or position in any way.