Jane Woodford and June Freeman are the 2024 Pointe Shop Models.
For this session with them, we shot in the Orange County area in Southern California.
Both June and Jane are extremely talented and this shoot was absolutely epic.
You can follow them on their IG’s below, along with the Pointe Shop.
Till next time,
-Oliver Endahl
Elseana Skowronski is a talented dancer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. We’ve shot together many times over the years.
Below is an interview with Elseana + photos from our latest shoot.
Top 5 favorite movies ever (in no order; just 5 movies)
Dirty Dancing, You’ve Got Mail, The Wedding Planner, Chicago, 500 Days of Summer
Favorite movie of 2024!
Wicked, hands down. I’m not really one to go to the theaters much or explore very many new movies. Usually when movies are heavily hyped I inevitably am disappointed. Wicked lived up though. Obsessed.
Does your relationship to dance feel different now than it used to? (Put another way; Has your relationship with dance changed at all?)
Definitely! I used to get much more caught up in the perfection of it all and get very stressed out by the performance aspect. I don’t dance as much as I would like anymore, but I definitely have more of an appreciation for just the movement and artistry of it all. I also unfortunately deal with a lot of chronic pain, so that has had an effect on the way I move my body. I think over all I am much more gentle and forgiving of myself when I dance now!
What music artists do you listen to?
Soooo many! My top artists this year were Olivia Dean, Hozier, SZA, Kendrick Lamar, and Noah Kahah, which I think represents my music taste pretty well.
What brings you joy?
Lately my friends/family/community has felt especially warm and important to me. Also music, flowers and my house plants, and art :)
Is it important for people to have hobbies?
I would argue yes! I think it shapes you into a full human. I think it’s easy to get caught up in work/school/responsibilities/etc. but if you don’t have enjoyable interests, what’s the point of life really?
Do you enjoy traveling? If so, what’s been a recent favorite trip of yours?
I do! I have been traveling more and more lately and I went on a lot of fun trips this year. Most recent fav was definitely Sri Lanka! It was my first time out of the country and I went to see one of my best friends! I got to spend some good quality time with her, ate a lot of really good food, swam in the ocean, and fulfilled a life long dream of seeing elephants in the wild hehe.
Where do you think the genre of repertory dance should go? Is there anything you want to see more of?
I would love to see repertory dance become more accessible to viewers and more inclusive in its representation. I feel like art deserves to be seen and felt and experienced by the masses, and that’s difficult when it is often catered toward such a small demographic.
What is your current go to “feel good” show?
Always Gilmore Girls and How I Met Your Mother!
What is a movie you saw this year that you liked but probably won’t rewatch?
This is actually a really difficult question because I am a major re-watcher, even if the film was mediocre lol. I think maybe this move called Love At First Sight. I technically have already watched this twice… But the first time was during a movie night I had with a friend and we literally talked through the entire thing, so I went back to watch again, and though it was a cute and enjoyable watch, we weren’t missing much by talking through it lol.
You can follow Elseana on IG here @Elseana.Dance
Till next time,
-Oliver Endahl
Jaclyn Younger and I have shot many times over the years. She is a frequent collaborator and is always a joy to work with. These photos were created earlier this year at a new photo studio I hadn’t used before.
I gave Jaclyn various interview questions for this post. Here are her answers
What’s been your favorite piece to perform?
Over the years I've performed several traditionally classical roles that I really love (demi-soloist in Paquita, Snow Queen, Dew Drop, and Spanish Lead in The Nutcracker, and variations such as Gamzati's wedding variation from La Bayadere and the La Esmeralda variation), but the pieces that tend to stick to me the most lean more neoclassical and contemporary. Last season I performed in an original piece, Quatro, by Juilliard alumni and current University of New Mexico professor Vladimir conde Reche and it will always be a piece that I remember as a catalyst for growth, challenge, and overall, the love of performance as a whole. I can't wait to see what new roles and pieces continue to inspire me in the near future.
What are other forms of art you enjoy outside of ballet?
Outside of ballet, I'm very drawn to both writing and photography. I graduated with a BA in Multimedia Journalism which I have been able to turn into a side job of professionally curating blogs and social media sites. Additionally, I work as an Assistant Creative Director for a nationally known wedding photography team (shout out to Alicia Lucia Photography), that allows me to continue to expand my skills as a writer, curator, and viewer of real-life love stories.
Beyond my professional pursuits, I'm a sucker for art galleries both big and small. I'll find any excuse to visit an exhibit or full blown museum in my local community and when I travel.
What do you think needs to change about the ballet industry?
There are so many elements of ballet that need to change, but the most prominent to me are the treatment of dancers and the perception of bodies in the dance world. Too many times dancers are asked to essentially work for free or for very little money in high stress situations with sometimes zero medical or emotional support from dance companies. In any other field of work employees are able to demand more, however in the dance world, especially when it comes to ballet, asking for livable wages and appropriate work conditions is taboo and dancers are generally expected to 'tolerate it'. I fully support the notion of more dancers, no matter the size of their companies, unionizing in order to create a better present for themselves and future for aspiring dancers.
Additionally, I think that there needs to be a huge adjustment in the way that the ballet world handles the idea of a 'perfect ballet body'. For too long there has been a stigma around weight in ballet companies around the globe and this diminishes the fact that dancers are human beings and therefore should be able to embrace change in their bodies over the years.
If ballet as a whole can't take on the demands of the 21st century such as treating dancers like people instead of just bodies, there is a real question of if the art form itself can truly be salvaged moving forward. As someone who loves ballet to my core, I hope that ballet, and the dance world at large, can adapt and create a more welcoming, realistic community for all.
You can follow Jaclyn on IG and keep an eye here for more of our shoots in the future.
-Oliver
Stacey Hazen and I got to shoot at the HappyGoLucky immersive art installation in New York City.
Immersive art experiences like this one pop up from time to time, and I always love creating at them. They’re designed to be utilized for photoshoots. The concept is that your friend stands in the art piece and you snap a photo of them. (Thus, the “immersive” part of the experience.) So you become part of the art itself.
The quality varies from installation to installation, but this one was particularly fun because A. Stacey Hazen is extremely talented and fun to shoot with and B. The colors of this HappyGoLucky really popped off.
(Love that “High Line” text on the phone booth)
You can follow Stacey Hazen on IG here and keep an eye on the Ballet Zaida Zine for more shoots with her.
till next time,
-Oliver
Peyton Szuberla
At the Noguchi Gardens and in studio
Peyton Szuberla and I shot at a public sculpture display called “Noguchi Gardens” located in California.
The garden sits between some business buildings and a parking garage. It’s less of a traditional garden and more like walking through an outdoor museum filled with huge pieces of art. It’s kept insanely clean and is often used for various photoshoots. (I had never shot there, but the location had been on my radar for years) While we were there, there was two wedding parties and some locals snapping photos and enjoying the sights.
There’s several very large pieces of art that each individually stand on their own, and together they all combine to form one grand piece which is the garden itself.
It wasn’t until after our shoot that I researched to find out more about the location. It turns out it was designed by renowned artist Isamu Noguchi.
Here is the Wikipedia headline info about Isamu Noguchi;
“Noguchi Isamu (November 17, 1904 – December 30, 1988) was an American artist and landscape architect whose artistic career spanned six decades, from the 1920s onward. Known for his sculpture and public artworks, Noguchi also designed stage sets for various Martha Graham productions, and several mass-produced lamps and furniture pieces, some of which are still manufactured and sold.”
How wild that he designed sets for Martha Graham? You can see in his work that it absolutely lends itself to dance with all the curves and aesthetically pleasing shapes.
Here is more information on the garden’s from the official website;
“Commissioned by the Segerstrom family in 1979 and completed in 1982, Isamu Noguchi’s California Scenario is recognized as one of the country’s preeminent sculpture gardens and the most vital publicly accessible outdoor sculpture oasis in Southern California. One of the artist’s most important public sculpture gardens, its design symbolizes various geographical characteristics of California, incorporating indigenous plants and materials.”
( https://www.southcoastplaza.com/stories/2016/12/noguchi-garden/ )
Everything looks so beautiful and intentional at this place that at one point I thought an outdoor garbage can was an art piece. (Which I thought was especially funny since in the movie “Wonder Woman 1984” they make this exact joke as they stroll thru an outdoor sculpture garden.)
After we finished at Noguchi, we headed to a photo studio that we had reserved for 2 hours. The studio had skylights above a cyc-wall, so we used all natural light for the set up.
Peyton’s Mother, Jessica, was the stylist for the shoot. I told Jessica for colors and outfit inspiration that we wanted anything neutral for the gardens, and for the studio we wanted anything “Barbie” centric. (That movie has amazing fashion and both Jessica and myself were inspired by it)
Jessica knocked it out of the park on both themes.
Love these gloves and the lines they created with Peyton’s port de bras
This converse look was especially fun to shoot. Peyton’s movements maximized the flow of the blue top and really brought an electric energy to the look.
Towards the end of our time we started losing light, (we shot at the studio from 6-8 PM) So Peyton wore this unique white fluffy top that we paired with a maroon leotard. The white top picked up the remaining soft light and Peyton’s body was nearly silhouetted.
This was a phenomenal shoot. I was feeling extremely inspired by the Noguchi Gardens, Peyton’s movements and Jessica’s passion/great taste for styling.
Keep an eye on the Zine fore more shoots with Peyton and Jessica Szuberla.
-Oliver Endahl
