“Dance enables you to find yourself and lose yourself at the same time” Peter Townsend
For many children and teens the dance studio is one of the main hubs of their lives, as important to them, and if not more so, than school. There is something special about growing up partly in the dance studio as it gives a child a place to challenge themselves outside of school, your home, and amongst the peers they see everyday. Friendships, creative expression, a developing work ethic, and a growing self confidence are all developed in the dance studio as a child learns their dance and how to perform it.
Whether your dance student studies their dance once a week or 6 days a week it is an important part of their life as they learn to enjoy how they can make their body move and express themselves through the art. Capturing the special moments in your child’s life and the passions that they have developed is important at all ages and stages but all too often as busy parents we neglect to celebrate and capture our older children’s interests. While the days as a parent feel long sometimes our children’s youth and the time they can freely dance until their heart’s content is fleeting. A beautiful record of them doing their favourite activity in the world will be something that they (and you!) will always treasure.
Preadolescence and adolescence can be such a challenging time in a person’s life as one struggles to learn who they are as a person and how to love themselves for who they are. I feel passionately about creating beautiful photographs for children of this age as all too often our children are filled with doubts about themselves and how they look. Through the lens of my camera I love being able to help show these young people just how strong and beautiful they are.
Dancing is such a huge part of a dancer’s growth in their youth as they learn to navigate between feelings of confidence and doubt and learn to express their feelings and their own unique self. With dance being such a large part of an older child’s or teen’s identity capturing them performing is the perfect way to help them let go of their insecurities and let them see just how wonderful they really are.
The session experience for your dancer will be much different than what they may have come to expect from participating in school photo days or for dance studio photos. Part of the session experience involves myself as the photographer developing a rapport with your dancer so that I can best bring out their personality and their own unique look. I will be there to put your dancer at ease and to make the session fun and stress-free for everyone so that your photos reflect your child’s love of dance and their genuine feelings.
My sessions are styled around your own preferences for poses and style rather than cookie cutter “dance poses” as each dancer has their own vision for their photographs as well as their own unique strengths. Once booked we will send you a detailed questionnaire where you can tell me more about the types of photographs you would like from your session so that I can plan for your session with your dancer and your preferences in mind.
On the day of your session I will guide your child through various poses, candid moments, as well as their favourite dance movements to create a gallery for you to choose your favourite images from. I will then edit, retouch, and artistically enhance your child’s photos to ensure they have a beautiful and high quality memento from the time they thought more of dance than anything else in the world. All of my sessions include heirloom quality prints as I feel it’s important for children to be able to see their beautiful photos up on their walls and proudly share them with others.
I am so looking forward to meeting more wonderful dancers this upcoming year. To hear about these special sessions once they are open for booking please sign up to my VIP List here (click for the VIP List!)
