St. Louis Spring Modern Dance Session | Elise Ringenberg

Oh do I sure love outdoor photography sessions when the weather is ideal. Spring is such a beautiful time in St. Louis and so far this year, we’ve gotten pretty lucky for many rainless weekends. This St. Louis spring modern dance session I had with Elise was nothing short of incredible. Her story and intention behind getting these photos done is inspiring to me and really filled me up to shoot this session!

Elise is a dance friend of mine and though we are both originally from the St. Louis area, we connected when we both lived in Chicago! Such a small world. Elise lived in Chicago while she was attending Columbia College’s dance/movement therapy program. Since those days of living in Chicago, we have stayed connected and are now both proud members of the St. Louis dance community. 

Elise works as a dance and movement therapist around the city. She also is a company dancer with Karlovsky & Company, a contemporary modern dance company with a focus on the human experience. Elise reached out to me for dance photos to capture this moment in her life and dance career up to this point before she goes in for surgery later this month. 

The focus of this session was to capture Elise’s independent, caring, and introspective personality while creating bold, quirky, and timeless images. Elise has done several photoshoots for various companies and freelance work, and it’s all been for show promotions and company marketing. Her experience in the past has been to “get the shot.” From what Elise told me, this dance photoshoot experience was all for her, to indulge in this moment, less than one month before having a big surgery to where she will have to take time off from dancing for a while. That purpose, the spark to capture this moment in her dance career is so powerful to me. I feel so grateful that Elise reached out to me to make this spring dance session happen. We were able to take the shoot slow and indulge in movements, find moments of exploration, and simply have fun! 

Enjoy some of my favorites from Elise’s spring dance session gallery!