Roof Top Dance
I’ve been working with Sally for around 10 years now and what has always impressed me with Sally is her dedication to her students. She creates a happy, fun, focused environment where her students gain a huge sense of achievement through their work continually building their confidence and skills that are used not just in dance but throughout their lives – this is plain to see on every photoshoot I’ve done for Sally over those 10 years.
The other great thing about Sally is her willingness to try something different. Through the movement of dance there is art, every pose, position and performance, there is art and what better way to capture that than by complimenting that art through different environments and locations.
Every now and then we’ll exchange ideas for various shoots, a student may be moving onto university for example and we’ll think of a location to do a photoshoot that will create a wonderful memory for that student and a set of images to look back on and enjoy.
From that we’ll have a library of images to use and for the photographer, learning opportunities while pushing boundaries to keep the photographic eye keen and engaged in the subject.
A little bit about St Chads
Situated opposite the Quarry area of parkland, St Chads was opened August 1792, in 1809, Charles Darwin was baptised at the church. The church is made from Grinshill Stone and the building work was supervised by John Simpson, who later worked with Thomas Telford.The church was designed by George Steuart who submitted drawing for a round church which nearly did not happen all but for some poor communication skills, we ended up with the original church Steuart recommended.
Photoshoot
We had an opportunity to do a photoshoot at St Chads a few months back. Michael was impressed with the ballet dancers which he thought complimented the church’s look and feel. While we had a short break, Michael invited me up onto the roof, wow – what an amazing roof. I think this is crying out for a photoshoot – Michael agreed.
I suggested to Sally, the roof of St Chads is very impressive and we would get some amazing shots just on the roof itself but we also have an amazing view of Shrewsbury Town Centre as a backdrop. Would Sally be okay with having say, 3 girls up for a photoshoot one evening in the week – absolutely replies Sally. Risk assessments carried out and working with St Chads secretary, Michael, we are happy that we could do this photoshoot safety.
The day arrives and we all gather in St Chads carpark. We meet up with Michael and Sally, the 3 girls, Cerys, Maddie and Elliw, we go over a few safety basics then make our way up to the roof.
While the girls get changed, Sally and I check the roof for heat (make sure it’s not too hot to stand on) and Sally assures herself that the circle centre and location is safe.
Maddie comes up first and we start by testing a couple of moves, 1 banana, 2 banana etc for the camera and any pose that requires strength to keep static, we pose, relax and repose again
This is repeated often with each dancer while I move around with my camera to try and capture the best angle that could match, for example, a dancer with a clock in the background, St Chads tower brown stone etc.
As the shoot progresses, Sally comes up with more ideas and we complement those with different camera and drone angles, the next thing we know, 2 hours have passed and we really should start to wrap the shoot up, we have kept Michael for long enough although he was very generous with his time and assured us there was no rush, we had pretty much exhausted my equipment batteries and shooting ideas until we got back to ground level and we concluded that none of us were in a rush to go home, so we walked around Shrewsbury and did – another shoot!
It has to be said that none of this would have been possible without the help of everyone involved at St Chads, in particular Michael who gave up his time to assist us. And of course, Sally for her sheer delight at being involved in such an exciting project and her support to me for making this happen on a dancing level, then of course, Sally’s dancers, Cerys, Maddie and Elliw for their patience, perseverance, professionalism and sense of humour, just because I can demonstrate an Arabesque does not make me a ballet dancer!
Please note that access to private areas of St Chads is strictly controlled and restricted
So Sally, where next!
We are always on the lookout for new and exciting places to perform, if you have an interesting building that you think would suit this type of shoot, (or any shoot for that matter) we would be interested to hear from you - what better way to promote your location than with a ballet performance and photoshoot!
