How to Nail Your Dance Photoshoot pt 2.

Preparing for your Dance Photoshoot

You have decided to capture your dancing with a professional photoshoot and you have found your dance photographer.

(If you haven’t found your photographer, CLICK HERE for part 1 of this series; Picking Your Dance Photographer.)

Preparing before your session.

Wardrobe choices

Think about the style of dance you are capturing. Leotards or activewear in a variety of colors are a great thing to have if you are taking more of a contemporary, ballet, or jazz approach to your shoot. Most likely you wouldn’t want to wear that for hip hop. Jeans that you can move in or track pants would be more appropriate for this style.

Find variations of wardrobe as well. Bring variations of more form fitting items as well as something that creates movement will give visual interest to the photos.

I love the unexpected flow of the pants and shirt combo that Sadie, in the image above, brought to this Malibu Beach Dancer Session. It creates flow without being a dress, which feels more expected.

The suggestion that I make to my clients is to bring a variety of dance wear (leotards, tops, dance shorts and pants) to bring something flowy (like a skirt or oversized shirt to put over a dance wear outfit and something more pedestrian. I love when dancers look like normal people doing extraordinary things.

Make sure you can move comfortably in the wardrobe you choose. If a leotard feels low cut or you have to adjust it often, it probably is not the right choice for the shoot (and maybe even for class). If you don’t normally wear crop tops and they make you uncomfortable, don’t bring them. The more comfortable you feel in your clothes the better the photos will turn out.

Pick colors with location in mind. If your shoot is out in green nature, reds and oranges will make you pop while yellow will blend more. An easy way to figure this out is to look at a color wheel. Anything that is directly across from the color of your background on the wheel will contrast your location, or pop out more. Any color that is next to the color of your background will blend more. When I am photographing dancers I do like a variety of both scenarios with color. Always throw some neutrals (white, black, tan) in your bag too.

Cara’s red skirt, in the image above, has beautiful movement and the color is striking against the greens and brown tones around her.

I love the pop of color Hannah brought with her orange socks. The orange was a perfect pop of color for the cloudy Los Angeles day. They create visual interest with her black wardrobe as well as putting a focus on her beautiful dancer feet!

I always have a little more-is-better approach to picking/bringing wardrobe.I suggest that my dancers bring a lot of variety with them to the shoot. I always meet my clients at their cars, so we can go through the wardrobe and look at what looks good for the location as it is at the moment. I will also pick a few more items to bring with than we usually get to, but it’s good to have the variety. For example, during the shoot with Kennedy below I initially had her put on a red dress. I knew the location we were photographing had a lot of concrete and I wanted her to pop. When we arrived at a spot that I thought would be interesting to photograph her in, the colors painted on the ground clashed with that red. We had decided to bring a peach romper (completely opposite of the red dress that she was wearing), and it worked perfectly for the colors that were surrounding us.

2. What to bring in your bag

Make sure you have all the shoes that you might want to take photos in. I always suggest bringing older shoes. They will get beat up taking photos outside. I have had dancers just drop their pointe shoes in a trash can as we are leaving their session. So be sure to plan accordingly. I always suggest bringing some sort of shoe, even if you think you want to do your photos barefooted. While I take extra care in choosing my locations for beauty as well as safety, sometimes the ground just is not conducive for bare feet. You want to make sure that you have a shoe that makes sense with whatever wardrobe and style of dance you are capturing in your dance photoshoot.
Bring hair styling items: brush, rubber bands, bobby pins and other items that you can use to pull hair back or secure fly aways. While working on the movements during our session, I always make sure to consider hair, and we work on hair-ography with the pose, but sometimes the hair just needs to be pulled back to make sure it is not distracting in the photograph.
Don’t forget your undergarments! Check and make sure you have any leotards or briefs that you will want to wear under your wardrobe. Be sure that whatever color under garments you are wearing won’t distract from your wardrobe.

3. Arrive early to warm up, not just stretch. Warming up is the process of getting your body ready to move. This means making sure you are getting your heart rate up to gradually increase your body temperature, and blood flow to muscles. So often dancers just think about the stretch part of getting ready, but the warm up is important to get your body ready to stretch and move. I always give my dancers a little time to warm up, but you don’t want to take a lot of time out of your session to get your body ready, so it is up to you to be ready to go when your photographer arrives. If throughout the session you need a moment to stretch for a particular pose or movement, it’s also important that you speak up for that.

4. Know your strengths. You want to make sure that you are not using up precious time during your session to figure out what you are good at. Come ready with at least 5 or 6 movements or poses you know that you can execute technically correctly or be able to hold if you need. Your photographer may tweak the pose a bit to make sure it looks good for the photograph, but you always want to have ideas, because you know your dancing better than the photographer does.

5. There are a few other things not to forget for your dance session.

A bag to easily carry all of your wardrobe, shoes and anything you might need for your session. When I am photographing on location around Los Angeles, we typically keep moving and don’t go back to the car for wardrobe changes. Dancers have pretty sneaky ways to get changed without losing their modesty.
Shoes that are easy to get on and off for walking from location to location. Ask your photographer what kind of terrain you might be walking on. Here in Los Angeles we have it all, so I often recommend an easy slip on sneaker instead of a slide or flip flop.
Water for drinking, and even a snack is important as well. You will be expending energy getting those perfect delvelopés or toe stands.
You also want to being something to cover up with either for warmth or if you are in a more crowded area, for modesty.
Baby wipes to clean off your feet.
An easy change of clothes for going home in. If you are shooting at the beach, you may get wet. If you are out in nature, it could be dusty or dirty. Having something comfortable to go home in will make you just that, comfortable!

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Interested in finding out more about a Dancer Session with me?

CLICK HERE and let’s get the conversation started.