Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Small town ballet

Ballet students at photo studio, Laramie, Wyoming. May, 2008.
(click photos to make bigger)

Classes started this week at the University of Wyoming.  Since I teach a couple of them, I haven't posted a blog for a few days.  I just completed day one of class and am taking a breather from preparation to look back through older photos.  One of the long-running themes of my Wyoming photo collection is children's dance, since Bei, my daughter, has been participating in it since she was three-years-old.  In fact, when she was three I once had to perform with her in a father-daughter dance;  you can imagine.  

Here in Laramie, we're lucky to have a fantastic dance studio (The Laramie Dance Center), run by Kathy Vreeland, who is a master at corralling hundreds of little girls (and a few boys) into well-organized performances, against all odds.  Each May, her classes march over to one of the photo studios in town for a group photo, and later appear as if by magic on stage at the UW Arts and Sciences Auditorium, in costume and makeup, for themed dances.  It's a logistical feat, no less complex than withdrawing troops from Iraq, in my opinion.

I made the above image while waiting for my daughter's class to get their photo taken.  For me, it's a classic with the little girls in their tutus and the dad in overalls and cowboy boots.  The picture was featured a few years ago on the website of The Candid Frame, which podcasts photography interviews regularly. The interviews, by the way, are great if you are into photography and often so even if you aren't.  

Dancers, May 2008.

The Green Room, May 2009

Bei, makeup, May 2010.

Kathy Vreeland with rescued terrified dancer, May 2011.

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