Melbourne Dance Photography - Ballerina En Noir Series

best dance photography in melbourne - Souri creates stunning photographs in the series ballerina en noir in Melbourne. Studio Dance Photography with a creative touch - black dresses.

17 Jul Melbourne Dance Photography – “Ballerina en noir” Series

Posted at 07:20h in Studio by fashion

Creative Melbourne Dance Photography

About a month ago, I saw some gorgeous photos of ballerinas by one of my favourite photographers (Patrick Demarchelier) and was inspired to produce some myself. There’s something seductive about ballerinas dressed in black. It wasn’t enough for me that they were just in leotards or the usual tutus. My Melbourne Dance Photography series is all about glamour – so my ballerinas would be glamorous as well.

It wasn’t necessary to have all my models in various dance moves and not all of my models were dancers. This photography project was all about portraying a ballerina in all her elegance, grace and beauty. One thing was certain throughout the entire shoot, those pointe shoes were going to make this shoot special. Those terribly uncomfortable pointe shoes which caused pain and created blisters on my dancers, were necessary to make my photography project into ‘Ballerina En Noir’ (Ballerina in Black).

Dance action photography in Melbourne - Female dancer mid air in split jump in black dress - barefoot

Styling a Studio Photoshoot

The entire shoot was styled by myself. There were a couple of gorgeous gowns which was kindly loaned to me by Melbourne designer, Craig Braybrook. It was obvious that my models couldn’t do any dance moves in these stunning gowns, but I just had to include them in the project and the end results are divine! The rest of the outfits were sourced especially for the shoot, which allowed my dancers some freedom of movement.

Finding black pointe shoes in time for the first lot of models was not easy! Being the impatient artist which I am, it was pretty much go from the moment the idea grew in my mind. My models were booked in within the week. Unbeknownst to me, most pointe shoes come in pink! The only place I found which would get these shoes to me in time, only had pink pointe shoes. Not being able to get these shoes in my desired colour was not going to stop this project from going ahead! Google convinced me that these shoes could be easily dyed black, so that was what I set out to do.

After watching a few tutorials on how to colour those pretty pink satin shoes, I took on the challenge. Boy, how disastrous did that turn out! Those shoes were nearly thrown into the trash! After taking some deep breaths, I realised that I am very good at photo editing and those not-so-black shoes would look just perfect in my photos. And they sure do!

creative studio photographer - girl on ladder in black dress

7 Photoshoots – A Melbourne Dance Photography Series

Thanks to all my beautiful ballerinas – Ariel, Shannon, Jana, Courtney, Jess, Lisa and Teagan. Hope that all the pain and blisters, which those shoes caused, was all worth it! Everyone did so well to give me these stunning photos in my tight little studio space. Thanks to Jacqui (Makeup By Jacquelyn) for coming in to help create some of these gorgeous looks for my models.

My project has come to an end and I’m extremely happy with the resulting images. This photography project has given me a taste of dance photography. It’s got me wanting more! We’re in the process of creating a larger space for dance shoots in the future. Until then, enjoy the images!

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