João Pedro Freitas, ballet dancer at Ballettschule Theater Basel — shot in Oporto, Portugal.
First, a bit of context: it was through street photography that I initially engaged with the world of still imagery. As a student in the nineties, during the analog era, I used a Pentax K-1000 to roam the streets of Oporto and other nearby cities. To this day, it remains one of the styles I enjoy the most, and every time I travel, my Fujifilm X100F is my preferred companion for this task (you can check out my city glimpses page). In essence, my photography developed on the streets.
when I decided to focus on dance photography as my primary subject, the transition felt completely natural. I began with street dance photography in the city of Warsaw through collaborations with several different artists.
Nathalie Sonnenschine, ballet dancer and teacher, for her project Ballerina and the City
Filipa de Castro and Carlos Pinillos, principal dancers of the CNB (National Company of Ballet, in Portugal). Session produced in Lisbon with Don Quijote costumes by Micaela Larisch Design.
after a few sessions with various ballet dancers, I realized that this was something I wanted to pursue in the future. So, I decided to create my own project and named it Dancers and their Cities . You can click on the link to visit the dedicated website created for this project.
It began as a pilot project in Portugal in 2019, with the idea of challenging dancers of all styles in various cities to collaborate on a non-commercial project, expressing their art through photography. Simultaneously, it allowed me to indulge in another passion: street photography, traveling between beautiful cities and rediscovering them through a photographic lens.
Ballet dancers José Afonso and Mara Morais in Ribeira, Oporto, Portugal.
when I moved to Poland in 2020, I decided to carry on with this project here. Currently, the project is active in 16 Portuguese cities and 7 Polish cities, with collaborations involving more than 80 individual dancers. Don’t forget to visit the project at www.dancersandtheircities.com!
Ballet dancers and teachers Marcelo Andrade and Beatriz Simões in Oporto, Portugal.