Dancers & Dogs Story

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. St. Louis based professional photographers Kelly Pratt & Ian Kreidich, a husband-and-wife team who work with the Saint Louis Ballet along with dancers around the country, had a vision: "What if we took pictures of ballet dancers, with dogs?"On paper, it was a strange concept and didn't make sense. Ballet is often seen as stuffy, moody, or unapproachable and dogs are known to be inherently playful, happy and goofy. However, after photographing their first duo Ericka and Baxter, an English Bulldog, Kelly & Ian fell in love with the concept and launched DANCERS & DOGS , a project which would ultimately photograph 100 dancers & 100 dogs in over 10 cities across the country in the span of two and a half years. The result demonstrates that you can both bring out the lighter side of dancers while teaching old dogs new tricks.Professional dancers are some of the most breathtaking humans on Earth, and some of the most dedicated to their craft, but the professional dance world is often seen as stuffy, unapproachable, at times even cut-throat and dark. Professional photographers Kelly Pratt Kreidich and Ian Kreidich wanted to show the lighter side of dancers—that these vaunted performers are also funny, silly people, full of humanity.When working with dogs, dancers can take a breathe, laugh, and experience working in a world where being imperfect...is perfectly ok. Dogs don’t care about perfect feet, the highest arabesque, or the right number of turns—they just want love, a good scratch on the head, and to enthusiastically join in on whatever their humans are doing. Dancers & Dogs celebrates the elegance, grace, and energy of dance, punctuated with playful canine joy. Dancers & Dogs started out as a wildly random idea one day in early 2017.We are dance photographers, mainly working with the Saint Louis Ballet, along with dancers around the country. We specialize in both marketing photography and performance photography.One day, I (Kelly) had a strange idea: "What if we did pictures of dancers, with dogs." Ian looked at me like I was crazy. On paper, it was strange and didn't make sense. Why dancers and dogs? But I told Ian to just "Go with it." I had a vision. Our first duo was Ericka and Baxter, an English Bulldog, who belongs to a friend. We captured just the results we were hoping for - clean and elegant pictures, that are sweet, light-hearted and funny. Ballet is often seen as stuffy or unapproachable, and we feel like this project helps people see the lighter side of dancers. We have learned a lot during this process. We were not animal photographers when we started out! But along the way we have learned how to work on a dog's level, how to get dogs to do certain actions, what kind of dogs are even right for this project.So here's the goal: 100 Dancers & 100 Dogs. We don't know how long that will take. We are starting in St. Louis, but we hope to expand this project to other cities as well. We are having fun.So back to, "Why?" Well, it's all about just making people smile. If we're doing that, that is all that matters.