Dancers in the streets: The Australian Ballet

From 2006-2018 I was employed as The International Tour Photographer with The Australian Ballet, documenting behind the scenes moments of one of Australia's largest performing arts organisations. Amongst my role capturing the dancers performing, preparing and gathering the strength for challenging roles just moments before stepping on stage, I also embarked on a personal project of photographing the dancers in the streets of the iconic cities we visited. On the streets of Beijing ( during the 2018 China Tour ) despite being in costume and moving with the precision that is the language of their art, the dancers were not in character. The resulting images are behind the scenes portraits capturing the individual identities of the artists. By removing the dancers from their controlled, interior environment and placing them in the gritty, urban streets of Beijing, their stylised, classical form juxtaposed with the everyday reality of city living creates a joyful, humorous take on the traditional ballet portrait.