Photoshoot with Michael Baxter

Michael Baxter and I jumped in the Artist Circle for a marathon 11 hour photo session last Sunday. He is an artist and a kindred spirit. He has poured money into state of the art equipment and countless hours into the practice of capturing the movement and subtleties of the dance on film. At our last session together, we captured movements that had an external and dramatic focus. This time, I wanted to seek out more internal expression, transcend movement and explore the nuances of emotion and soul. And, though I wanted to get beyond the drama of the flying sequins, skirts, and veils, I did bring 14 costumes by Bella, works of art in fabric and beading that mesmerize, inspire, and weave stories all their own.

Instead of the normal belly dance CD and list of poses/movement ideas I usually bring to a photoshoot, I brought a CD loaded with the music of Beethoven and Prokofiev. There were a couple of middle eastern favorites to warm up and flavor my dance, but soon we put on the 2nd movement from Beethoven's "Eroica" Symphony (his third symphony, and the single piece of music attributed to the beginning of the Romantic Era of western music.) Honestly, any emotion I have ever or will ever feel I am sure I can find described in the music of Beethoven. The Adagio Assai was today's emotional map, followed by excerpt's from Romeo and Juliet by Prokofiev.

I also brought a list of concepts and intentions, instead of physical poses and moves. My list read like this:

1. ascending and descending angels
2. glances
3. chakras
4. surrender to the light
5. mystery
6. bareness
7. courage
8. beyond judgement

Here are a few of the ways we worked with this list:

Since the crash of Flight 1549 on the Hudson and the survival of all on board, stories of angels have been circulating, filling me with a sense of hope and the miraculous. The image of angels ascending and descending, connecting two worlds, continues to reappear in my mind. The contrary motion (use of simultaneous ascending and descending scales) of Beethoven's music paints a similar picture. I wanted to take this idea and try to capture the hope it inspires in my dancing.

Have you noticed how poignant a glance can be? We wanted to explore all angles from which a dancer can be seen, and also wanted to harness the power of connection that comes when eyes meet. I suggested that Michael walk and move around me, and I would walk and dance around him. Every once in a while our eyes would meet, and that would be our photo. I found it energized and captured spontaneous emotion, and revealed inner mysteries. I felt like the Mona Lisa. Of course, glancing away gives an interesting taste as well. These photos were especially satisfying.

I've written about the chakras as they relate to dance in an earlier post. We took the final 7 costumes to focus on the 7 chakras. I tried to allow the energy of the chakra to propel me to its natural manifestation and expression in dance.

Michael is a genius with lighting, and I always enjoy the fruits of his experiments. To work with the idea of "surrendering to the light" he came up with a few different lighting techniques. The first he called "Chiaroscuro", where he shot the photos at an angle across the white backdrop. The direction of the light created a sharply divided light and dark frame within the picture. I could step in and out of the light as I chose. There was also a beautiful effect of lighting with a huge soft box from behind with a fill light in front that was incredible. I could toss a veil overhead and it would absolutely glow, seemingly creating a light all it's own.

Bareness. We bare our souls and we bare our skin when we dance. Not only being comfortable but celebrating these two forms of vulnerability and bareness was a focus for part of the shoot. I would like to work further with this, as I realized in retrospect that this bareness also requires a comfort with stillness, and an abilitiy to be still, yet have energy and emotion flowing in and out of the body. Generally, now, I want to blend the emotional with the physical, and be able to have soulful, energetic stillness.

As for going beyond judgement, that is still a tough one for me. I am not sure how it manifests itself in my dancing, but I do know that seeing myself through my own eyes, and not through how I believe others perceive me, is one of the healthiest paradigm shifts I am making in my life.

Images from this photo session may be found on my website: http://alimahdances.com/photogallery.php