EMP: Ballet Photoshoot

I have not written as much in my blog as I had hoped to, although most of my time has gone into the practical application of making the costume and writing up full instructions and a workbook, but I have particularly enjoyed working with the students at the Arts Education School in London. They are mainly a musical theatre school but they learn dance, including ballet and so we have had live dancers to fit our costumes to.

The fittings have been covered in my instructions, but it is still interesting to reflect on the opportunity and is positives and challenges.
I unfortunately ended up with a different artist for each fitting, and then another artist for the final photo hoot. Naturally, I was worried that my costume would not fit, but luckily there were no major problems on the day- I could have achieved a better fit, had I received the same artist on each occasion, but the nature of costuming is very fluid, so it is an asset to be able to think on your feet in such occasions! However, my final artist was lovely and very accommodating having travelled at short notice all the way from London to Bournemouth. So it was important that I put her at ease as quickly as possible by being approachable, friendly and judging whether she wanted to have a natter as I dressed her into the costume. She was obviously aware that the costume had not been made for her specifically so I made sure I gave her confidence in how she looked in the costume (although she looked great in it anyway).

The shoot was fun and colourful, but long and tiring, especially for the artists who had to stand around for long periods of time. Provisions were made to feed and water them during their visit and I did as much running around for my artist as I could to make sure she was comfortable and that she had a good experience. When her time came for the individual shots, from experience I knew I needed to make sure I gave her a lot of direction so that I got all the shots that I want for my own portfolio.

As a group the costumes looked amazing and their was a real sense of achievement from the whole of the group, even though working in such a tight knit unit held its own challenges, the outcome was very positive and I think we could all stand back and appreciate each others hard work and input into such a successful project.

I am still waiting for the professional photos to be delivered but here are a few shots I took on the day.