My education and background is in cinema and that’s where I draw a lot of my inspiration and passion. Its also been the gateway to my photographic ambitions because I can use it as a cinematic shorthand to test out ideas and to execute projects. I am also drawn to the troubleshooting aspect of photography and finding photographic solutions (and sometimes intertextual solutions) to conceptual conundrums I’d be wrangling in my head.  Similarly, what draws me to the ballet is its synthesis between aesthetics and corporeality.  I love that it’s lexicon is a physical one sutured to a soundtrack that speeds the narrative along.  I love watching discipline and histrionics interacting with expression and swagger.  I love the mechanical elegance by which the dancer’s carry themselves. The movement, the stoicism, the spectacle, the work ethic, these are all things that came together for me and that I feel photography exploits.  When shooting the Romeo and Juliet rehearsal at The National Ballet of Canada, I was trying to demonstrate this mix of grit and poise as well as a more casual nature we aren’t accustomed to seeing up close. I was really interested in how the dancers comported themselves while they weren’t on the floor, which to me exemplifies how they must live their lives.

Principle Dancers featured in this post:  Guillaume Côté, Aleksandar Antonijevic, Heather Ogden, Piotr Stanczyk, Sonia Rodriguez, & Greta Hodgkinson 

First Soloists featured in this post: Etienne Lavigne, Elena Lobsanova, Patrick Lavoie 

Second Soloist featured in this post: Alexandra MacDonald

Click here to learn more about the National Ballet of Canada.

Tickets for Romeo and Juliet are on sale now. This ballet runs until March 17th.

Photo Story by Daniel Neuhaus