What a joy it was working with Cheridan for her dance portrait session! I cannot say enough about this gal and how much she’s grown as a dancer. We had such a blast on her dance photoshoot in Grand Center St. Louis!

Cheridan was one of eleven dancers whom I choreographed a work as a guest artist for the conservatory of dance at Southeast Missouri State University. The dance piece was set on first year dance students at the university, where we spent only one week choreographing, collaborating, and workshopping a complete dance for them to perform later that semester. It was a wonderful experience to connect these first year students to each other and to the college dance program. So that’s how Cheridan and I met, almost three years ago.

Now, Cheridan is going into her senior year at SEMO and is already thinking ahead for her future in dance. If I could go back, like Cheridan, I would have planned out a photoshoot before I graduated from university and dove head first into the professional world. Not only that, but what a wonderful way to celebrate this chapter of your life with photos! Cheridan wanted these dance images of herself to promote her dancing on social media, share her growth, and hopefully sometime in the future launch a dance website for herself. All incredibly smart ways to begin to navigate the dance industry before officially venturing into the professional world.

On the day of our dance shoot, Cheridan had just completed her first of two weeks at the Big Muddy Dance intensive. She was sore and bruised from all the floorwork, but that didn’t stop her ambition. She showed up ready to dance and create show-stopping photos. What I found so striking about her experience was that Cheridan is from a small town and had never really driven on the freeway before coming to St. Louis. (!!) Not only that, but she also stayed in a hotel on her own for two weeks while this dance intensive was happening to experience life in a bigger city. Needless to say, she is super independent and driven. I was in the city the following week for the culminating performance of the intensive to showcase what the dancers learned during the previous (and very intense) two weeks.

It was lovely to witness a client dance for a performance and not simply in front of the camera, because there is such a shift in mindset and perspective that comes with dancing with the intention of receiving still images. Cheridan left it out there on the floor for the performance and it was a joy to watch her move again in a studio/performance setting and to see her growth over the last three years.

Enjoy this gallery of photos from Cheridan’s dance portrait session and wish her good luck on her final year of college as she enters the next chapter of her dance journey!