Dance. Rinse. Repeat.
As we’ve been reminded by watching the Rio Summer Olympics, being able to achieve feats of acrobatic ability requires countless hours of practice over years, repeating complex movements until they appear easy to anyone watching. This senior dancer is no stranger to training and repetition, so when I asked her if she would come back and do a few more jumps in the new, freshly blooming sunflower patch, she was very cooperative.
The weather was a bit more uncertain. It was actually pouring rain when we arrived at the field, and we had to decide whether to stay or reschedule. We elected to wait it out, and fifteen minutes later, we were able to set up in the soggy field. We both brought tarps, so she had the additional challenge of dealing with pushing off against wrinkled, slipping plastic, instead of solid ground. You wouldn’t know it by her form in the air, though.
Well, I wouldn’t know it, anyway. She was much more of a stickler about the dance technique details than I was. I was being obsessive-compulsive about the photography technicalities. So we had two people nit-picking over completely different areas, which means my senior dancer had to do a LOT of jumps. Fortunately, she was well-trained for it.
This just looks like something you shouldn’t attempt unless there’s a pool under you.
I have a picture of her from another event dressed up as Batgirl, but the pose was not as dramatic as this. If I had known then what she was capable of, I would have pushed her much harder.
Finally, I had her perform my favorite jump from the last session, just because it’s so amazing when she does it.
You know how the Olympic commentators like to talk about how Simone Biles’s tumbling passes are just as intense at the end of her 90-second routine as the start? This young lady was still able to pull off jumps like these at the end of a 50-minute solo performance for me. That is discipline.
And the girl even went through four different outfits during the photo shoot. I hope she didn’t have to change under a wet tarp, but I haven’t figured out where else she could have gone, unless she went to change in the car four times, or trudged off to your house each time. For my tastes, I’m glad that you two stuck it out after the downpour, because the clouds are one of the best parts of these shots for me (one of, I said, not the very best part). As someone who has been at the receiving end of Nancy’s training sessions, I can say without hesitation that it was a very good thing that this young lady was available for this particular set of exercises, because if I’d been the one to pose for it, Nancy would have gotten a much different result. And it’s not one of those cases where you can say “not better, not worse, just different”. It would have been staggeringly worse. Congratulations on what appears to have been a very successful photo shoot for all!
Among her other talents, she is a quick change artist, and brought everything to the field in an overnight bag. She was wearing a leotard underneath, so we didn’t get arrested.
Absolutely amazing photos, Nancy. Beautiful!
Thank you!
I have to say I also wondered where she might have changed. Stunning girl and photos Nancy.
Well, you have to be able to surreptitiously change in the blink of an eye when you’re Batgirl.
This are amazing Nancy! Great post-production work! You are going to have to give me “behind the scenes” tour one day. 🙂
If you’re ever back in Cincinnati, I would love to!