HOW WE STARTED
Stavna ballet company, our first series of dancers!
When I lived in tampa, FL I worked with & loved a ballet company..
One year I was working back stage taking pictures during Nutcracker and a dancer was sharing an emotional story about his personal dance journey and he shared with me how dance saved his life. I was very moved by the passion and details of the story he shared. As he danced, I thought to myself I wish the audience knew just what had really gone into this dancer’s life leading him to this very star project that would need planning, dedication and town a would call home.
Once I moved to Richmond, I still had this dance project on my heart. Soon after relocating, I worked closely with the STAVNA Ballet company. I had shared my idea with their artistic director, Shannon McConville. She loved the concept and shared it with her dance company. It was so wonderful to have dancers who believed in me and the idea. I am so thankful they helped the beginnings of this little heart project & thus Dancers of RVA was born! Soon after the first few features, the dance community embraced the project and nominations started to come in for dancers from all areas of dance and all different walks on their dance journey! Within the first year, I had photographed & the blog had shared over thirty stories of dancers in Richmond! The heart behind this project is to inspire our community with the stories and passion of the Richmond dance community.
In 2018, Dogtown Dance Theatre opened it’s heart and walls to the first Dancers of RVA exhibit. Thirty one pieces shared the stories and pictures of the first year dancers. From September 2018- September 2019.
Since our first session in June of 2017 we have photographed and shared the story of over 120 dancers in the Richmond, VA area!
Dancers of RVA has been locally featured by the Richmond Grid, landing the cover image and featured story for the 2018 Spring magazine. Then in October of 2018, Shootproof featured the project on their website and with their followers in their monthly newsletter.
In the Fall of 2019, Dancers of RVA kicked off it’s rebranding with it’s most recent feature of the 2019 RVA Dance Awards nominees, also earning the honor of BEST DIGITAL CONTENT from the RVA Dance Awards in 2019. We were elated to sponsor the RVA Dance Awards for year two and present BEST DANCE PHOTOGRAPHER to the lovely Katelyn Hundley!
In 2020, we used our quarantine time to photograph a fun little pop-up feature called Dancers and Doorways.
We are elated to continue the tradition of sharing the stories of our dance community in 2021 by partnering with Dogtown Dance Theatre to bring you; Rise UP {From the Shadows of 2020} a dance documentary sharing the stories of 2020 from the dance community in RVA
