Michelle Z Simmons met up with ballet dancer Lucas Labrador in downtown Roswell, a suburb of Atlanta. Simmons had been a photographer for only a few years, but had developed a love of shooting dancers. “I had photographed my niece, who is now with Virginia’s Richmond Ballet, and wanted to get more experience,” she explains. “Dancers have been photographed many, many times, so I wanted something different from the classic ballet shot.”
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With that in mind, she asked Labrador to wear casual clothes instead of traditional ballet attire and arranged to meet in an area filled with restaurants and shops. “Unfortunately, as the sun went down and the lights were coming on, the traffic and crowds increased, making the location feel messy,” Simmons says. “We walked around to a back alley and it was perfect. I grabbed some sunglasses and a hat out of my car, and we just played ideas off each other until we got some shots we loved.”
Labrador had final approval of the image: “Ballet dancers are finicky about their photographs,” Simmons says. “What I think looks good is not always proper form for them.
“The shadow and the opposing diagonals created by Lucas’s body and the staircase in relation to his extended arm and thigh are the other important parts of the image. It creates a composition that keeps your eye moving around the image,” she adds.
She hopes the photo will encourage others to “pick up their phone and head out to someplace unexpected with someone unexpected. I also hope it makes everyone want to jump!”
