Season 1- Episode 1: August Monthly Riff with... Oliver Endahl aka. Ballet Zaida
I'm so excited to be launching my blog today with the first of my special features called "The Monthly Riff..."! Each month I will be interviewing various prominent, relevant, creative and fun people who I think have so much knowledge and inspiration to offer us all. The riffs will cover a broad span of topics and strive to include a lot of take away information re: career path/guidance, artistic input, nutrition, wellness, and helpful tips and advice in an exclusive way. I will try to make the interviews super informative but still candid, juicy, full of personality, and fun! So... here is Episode 1:
Before my season starts next week, my family and I took a little vacation to the west coast and went around San Fransisco, Napa, Santa Barbara, and Los Angeles. I aimed to be the slightest bit productive during my time away, so this past Saturday I had the pleasure of working with the one and only... Ballet Zaida. We spent the day from 9-4 shooting in various places such as the Disney Concert Hall Gardens in Los Angeles, in his studio and on the roof??! Pretty epic, I know right? Not only did we have a great time making art, but I had a chance to get to know the guy behind the camera, no not Ballet Zaida, but Oliver himself
Right off the bat, his sincere, organic generosity was made clear and I knew right away we were going to have a fabulous day! He showed deep curiosity and care towards my family and I, asked us tons of questions and we even talked about our favorite Netflix shows! I proceeded to tell him about my upcoming blog site and that he would be my first post, he seemed super open to answer my questions and was more than happy to be apart of my new project. Throughout the day, he gave me tons of advice and tips on how to keep a successful social media face which he finds healthy for an artist, how to become a better artist onstage and off, and how important it is to keep a healthy outside of work-life balance and outside interests in order to boost my happiness and longevity of my overall career. I learned that he offers so much depth and creativity and has so much meaning behind his art. After an epic, inspiring, and exciting day, I finally got to ask him some questions that we've all hopefully been dying to ask. When we were done, to my surprise, he asked to interview me as well! That's just how spontaneous and creative he is! I will take away a lot of new, artistic knowledge and insight, it was so more than just a photo shoot! Hopefully you learn some of what I did too from our interview! Here is a brief transcript/preview of the interview. Check out the full video using the link down below :
Q: What else besides timing does being a former dancer help with in capturing dance photos?
A: Besides timing, which is obviously very important, a dancer's eye can recognize the slightest difference to improve the photo, like noticing a sickled foot or a hand that is slightly placed incorrectly. Going into a photo shoot with the knowledge of that is absolutely critical.
Q: What inspired you to become a dance photographer after your dance career?
A: At the time I started, there was very little dance photography, and those that were out there had great composition but the technique was lacking. Another thing that motivated me was the lack of knowledge from the general public, as you know ballet dancer train harder than most professional athletes which really frustrated me because the public was completely unaware of how hard these dancers work. I really wanted to spread the word and get it out there for everyone to enjoy.
Q: How do you feel your work is unique and sets you apart from so many of the other dance photographers out there?
A: Number one is the knowledge, so you can tell looking at the photos "Ok it looks like a dancer took them.". Number two is that every photographer has a different style, whether they try to or not, what I always try to go for with my photos is the actual feeling of dancing. Some people go for muscle definition, others is all about the lighting, but mine I feel is very whimsical, there's usually some kind of movement with the hair or the arm. In a scientific research, people like watching dance from the audience because it makes them feel like they're doing the dance, like they are moving as well.
Q: Where do you find inspiration/get ideas for your photo shoots?
A: That is all over the place, when I first started out there was a lot of inspiration from Japanese Anime because I'm a big fan of colors. Japanese anime at the time had some really cool series where the colors were just popping with a feminine style and there is a lot of androgyny which carries off into the ballet world as well. As well as regular movies, lots of music while I am editing will influence what style the photos will possess. Now I'm trying to discover things I haven't done and try to move forward with my work.
The rest is in the video...
Here is Ballet Zaida's Instagram link:
https://www.instagram.com/balletzaida/
