Finis – Page 6

Finis: Gotham Dance Festival

June 30, 2012 by 4dancers

by Christopher Duggan

My wife Nel and I have been filming and photographing dance for years, and we can’t seem to get enough of the dance festival experience. Festivals offer a different kind of excitement that you don’t always see during one company’s week-long run in the theater. They’re jam-packed with different dancers, styles and choreographic voices over a short amount of time. With so much happening, the festival set-up creates a huge buzz that keeps everyone excited and on their toes. It’s a fun vibe, and it seems to encourage new audiences – fresh faces that are game for seeing something new and being exposed to art they aren’t familiar with.

Behind the scenes, I get to see how that variety is created, and sometimes, I see the same dancers and choreographers on different nights with completely different programs. It shows how incredibly diverse the dance world is, how much talent exists in the field and how lucky we are as fans to have access to it all.

Gotham Dance Festival is getting better each year, and I’m always psyched to photograph the companies Producer Ken Maldonado brings to The Joyce Theater. This year, there was a one-night only celebration featuring choreography by a fantastic group of U.S.-based female choreographers to benefit Gotham Arts Exchange. The show included: BalletX performing the work of Jodie Gates, Jane Comfort & Company, Loni Landon, Camille A. Brown & Dancers, Carolyn Dorfman Dance Company, Kate Weare Company, Pam Tanowitz Dance, and a special encore by Monica Bill Barnes & Company.

The festival also included California-based BODYTRAFFIC and Gallim Dance. Nel and I first saw Gallim perform Blush at White Wave Festival in Brooklyn, and we’ve been hooked ever since. In fact, Nel and I have worked with a lot of these choreographers and dancers over the years. We are so proud to see them achieving such great success and filling The Joyce Theater, and it was really fun to share this festival experience with them.

And now I’d like to share it with you…

National Museum Of Dance: Art In The Foyer 2012

May 31, 2012 by 4dancers

by Christopher Duggan

05_NMD_IO_2007_Collage Dance Collective_CDuggan_018 — Photo by Christopher Duggan

Last night was the opening of my year-long exhibition at the National Museum of Dance, and it was a really exciting moment in my artistic career–not just because any curation of my work is incredibly flattering, but because the photographs I chose to display all showcase a space that is very dear to me, a place I’d love to share with everyone I meet.

When the museum contacted me and expressed interest in my photographs of performances at Jacob’s Pillow’s Inside/Out, I couldn’t have been happier. The Inside/Out series features a diverse group of outdoor dance performances that are free and open to the public. These performances take place on a large outdoor stage on the festival grounds, and the backdrop offers a panoramic view of the Berkshires Hills—it’s a stunning visual.

Shooting at Inside/Out is very personal for several reasons. It’s my favorite place to shoot dance, it’s the most challenging space I shoot dance, and it’s the place that in a single image encapsulates the feeling you get when you’re on campus at Jacob’s Pillow.

It’s wonderful that my exhibition coincides with Jacob’s Pillow’s 80th anniversary season. The Pillow’s longevity as a vital presenting and educational institution in the dance world is nothing short of extraordinary, and Inside/Out is one of the Pillow’s most celebrated performance series. The dance concerts take place four nights per week during the festival season and a wide range of family-friendly styles are represented. Outdoor dance scenes have been iconic of Jacob’s Pillow since its founding by modern dancer and choreographer Ted Shawn (not surprisingly, a C.V. Whitney Hall of Fame member at the National Museum of Dance), and I’ve always hoped to pay homage to this tradition in my photographs of Inside/Out shows.

Capturing dance at an Inside/Out show is challenging, not only because the light is ever-changing, but also because I’m always looking to showcase the incredible feeling you get when you’re watching dance in that space. I knew I had to find a way to print my photos on a grand scale to get that feeling right. I wanted museum-goers to feel a little part of what it’s like to watch dance underneath huge trees, which are in turn dwarfed by a spectacular sky. In the end, I went with images that were 28×40 or larger, with the biggest photo at 50 inches tall. I hope my exhibition showcases a bit of that live-performance magic.

Some of my dance photography idols have presented work at the National Museum of Dance’s past exhibitions. Examples include Paul Kolnik, who has been shooting New York City Ballet forever, Lois Greenfield, who has photographed everyone (and everyone recognizes her images) and Rose Eichenbaum, who has made such an impact with her photographs and books, not to mention the fact that she has worked with so many important people in the dance world.

I’d love for you to visit my exhibit this year if you get a chance. Better yet, plan a weekend getaway to the Berkshires to see part of Jacob’s Pillow’s 80th anniversary season. The roster includes favorite programs and companies from past festivals–Crystal Pite’s Kidd Pivot in Dark Matters, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company’s latest work and Doug Elkins and Friends’ Fraulein Maria–as well as companies new to Jacob’s Pillow theaters.

While you’re there, be sure to look for the bald guy with the camera and say hi.

Contributor Christopher Duggan is the founder and principal photographer of Christopher Duggan Photography, a New York City-based wedding and dance photography studio. Duggan has been the Festival Photographer for Jacob’s Pillow Dance since 2006. In this capacity, and as a respected New York-based dance photographer, he has worked with renowned choreographers and performers of international acclaim as well as upstarts in the city’s diverse performance scene.

He has created studio shots of Gallim Dance, Skybetter + Associates and Zvidance, among others, and in 2011 alone, he has photographed WestFest at Cunningham Studios, Dance From the Heart for Dancers Responding to Aids, The Gotham Dance Festival at The Joyce Theater, and assisted Nel Shelby Productions in filming Vail International Dance Festival.

Duggan often teams up with his talented wife and Pillow videographer Nel Shelby (http://nelshelby.com). A New York City-based husband and wife dance documentation team, they are equipped to document performances, create and edit marketing videos and choreography reels, and much more.

Christopher Duggan Photography also covers Manhattan’s finest wedding venues, the Metropolitan and Tri-State areas, and frequently travels to destination weddings. The company’s mission is straightforward and heartfelt – create timeless, memorable images of brides, grooms, their families and friends, and capture special moments of shared love, laughter and joy.

His photographs appear in The New York Times, Destination I Do, Photo District News, Boston Globe, Financial Times, Dance Magazine, Munaluchi Bridal, and Bride & Bloom, among other esteemed publications and popular wedding blogs. One of his images of Bruce Springsteen was added to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s celebrated photography collection in 2010. His company has been selected for inclusion in “The Listings” in New York Weddings magazine.

Paul Taylor Dance Company — Up Close

March 31, 2012 by 4dancers

by Christopher Duggan

When Paul Taylor Dance Company invited me photograph their dress rehearsals, I was really excited to make photographs in the amazing (and enormous!) David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center. I had never photographed in that theater before and have always wanted to. It’s a symbol of great performance art, the highest standards, the home of New York City Ballet and synonymous with “uptown” dance. To have the chance to photograph the incredibly talented dancers of Paul Taylor Dance Company on this stage made me smile from ear to ear.

The company’s PR representative welcomed me into the theater and pointed to where I was to photograph from: the back of the house. The New York Times and two other photographers were already set up–but it was FAR from the stage, behind the tech table, center orchestra; seemingly a football field’s distance from the dancers. This just wasn’t going to work for me.

I asked if I could sit any closer. Mr. Taylor would be sitting center orchestra just in front of the tech table, and I was instructed not to sit anywhere in front of him so as not to distract him or disturb his sight-lines.

But front row orchestra left was fair game and I took my position. This made me much happier. I was as close to the dancers as I could be and I was now envisioning my angle for the shoot. My intention was to cut off limbs and to really get intimate. The Paul Taylor dancers are superb technicians, gorgeous at every turn. I wanted to see their sweat. Something like: “Paul Taylor: Up Close.”

I was happy with my results, finding toil and drama and personality in the dancers, even in that enormous theater.

Christopher Duggan pic — Christopher Duggan

Finis: One Dancer — Three Views

February 29, 2012 by 4dancers

I haven’t done a lot of dance portraits, but it’s shaping up to be my next big area of creative development, especially with a new studio to work in.

I really struggle with the question “What is a dance portrait?” I photograph people all the time. I’m a people photographer. But is a portrait of a dancer dancing a “dance portrait”? Or is a photo of a dancer a “dance portrait” simply because she or he is a dancer? Does it need to be in costume or dance clothes? If it’s a singular image standing alone, does there have to be some indication of dance in it? Like the background or the location? When you have a celebrity dancer like Baryshnikov, a portrait of him is always a dance portrait, but what about an unknown dancer?

Perhaps I need to stop asking so many questions, not worry about it and just go shoot some portraits?

Here is a personal friend and an incredible dancer and performer, Jenny Mendez. And three different ways I saw her. Photographed recently in my studio in NYC.

Finis: My Project Idea

January 31, 2012 by 4dancers

by Christopher Duggan

This summer will be Jacob’s Pillow’s 80th Season and my seventh as Festival Photographer. My responsibilities at the Pillow have shifted since my first season. In 2006, I was primarily hired to capture several of the events and make beauty shots of the grounds. I was welcome to shoot dress rehearsals for performances, but they didn’t really need those images.

Now I’m working there to photograph dance, the dress rehearsals for press, the school for documentation, etc. I love it, and I’m always looking to do more and find new ways to contribute.

It’s been a dream of mine to make portraits of the artists and dance portraits of the performers whenever possible, but I’ve been quite timid and shy about this endeavor. Last summer I finally got my foot in the door and asked a couple of the artists to work with me doing some creative portraiture. You can see examples of what we created on my blog: [Read more…]

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