Photoshoot With Alexander Yip from The Ballerina Project UK

I have been wanting to do a ballet photo shoot out and about for a while as I am a huge fan of Jordan Matter's work. I came across The Ballerina Project UK a while ago on Facebook and more recently found him on Instagram and thought 'this is exactly what I was looking for!' Eventually I decided to get in touch and after talking for a bit about his work Alexander asked if I would like to do a shoot soon. I was very excited and of course, said yes. We are both very busy people but we found a time when I had a half day from school and he was on holiday from work and agreed that that would be a good time to shoot.

I made my way to London with my Mum and met with Alexander at Paddington where he asked whether I'd rather shoot inside as the weather wasn't what we'd been hoping for - awful rain. We then followed him as he led us to where he thought would be good to shoot. On our way, he decided to go a bit further on the tube to Embankment station as there was a tunnel that he said he kept passing that he'd been wanting to shoot in. We got off and found the tunnel, I then proceeded to take off my boots and socks and put my pointe shoes on and gave my jacket to my mum who stood with our bags. He warned me that security might stop us and if so we would. The tunnel was great and I had such fun creating different shapes within it. At one point I looked down to where you could see the platform and there were two members of platform staff just leaning on the bar watching us which was awesome!

Credit: Alexander Yip Photography

Once we were done there we got back on the tube and headed to the indoor location. We shot in a couple of places including in a lift doorway, on these great stairs surrounded by windows, in a classroom and in front of this cool massive metal structural piece. After this, we went to get a drink and looked through the photos we'd taken so far.

Credit: Alexander Yip Photography

After getting a drink I got changed from what I was wearing - a black and white body (can't remember where this is from) and black and white wide-legged trousers (Matalan) - into a new outfit - purple leotard (Sansha) and ballet tights (Roch Valley). We then walked over to another building and to a sort of indoor balcony kind of place and took some shots there. We left my mum knitting on a chair there and walked around trying to find a bigger space to take some shots as I have such long legs! We found a room with great windows and an amazing view.

Credit: Alexander Yip Photography

I had an amazing experience shooting with Alexander and learnt a lot as I've never done anything like it. He kept asking 'what else' after I'd done one pose which meant that I really had to engage my brain and was actually really challenging. I am definitely more aware of what goes into ballet photography now and so next time I do something like this I feel like I'll be more prepared. If you guys ever get the chance to do something like this I say go for it as it was brilliant and I felt good in myself which isn't something that I feel a lot of the time. You should most definitely check out his Instagram accounts as his photography is stunning!
https://www.instagram.com/ballerinaprojectuk/
https://www.instagram.com/AlexanderYipPhotography/