LANGUAGE OF DANCE

2025

Dance embodies emotion, creativity, and storytelling, conveying both personal and universal experiences. While beautiful, it brings challenges like anxiety, perfectionism, burnout, and body image struggles, alongside rewards like strength, flexibility, community, and joy.

This photographic project is inspired by my 19 years of ballet training and performing. Ballet shaped my closest friendships and best memories, leaving a sudden emptiness when it was no longer part of my life. I experienced frustration, exhaustion, and defeat, but also freedom and confidence. Though I still feel both longing and resentment, I’ve come to appreciate all I’ve gained. Nearly three years after ending my dance career, I now seek to capture the liberating aspects of movement through photography.

In collaboration with these dancers, I explored their struggles, triumphs, and reasons for continuing. Many see dance as their ultimate form of self expression, the language and culture they grew up with. Some feel miserable without it, while others described the joy of performing as feeling fully present. Almost all mentioned its strong community. One dancer simply said, “I am who I am because of dance.” I asked them to try to express these feelings through movement as I photographed them. 

Through my photographs, I hope to convey the complexities of dance—the hardships and rewards—and why dancers persist despite the challenges.