Dancer As Motif :: Workshop 2026

Welcome back everybody. Over the last 5 years, ballet has quietly become one of the most important aspects of my own photography. This April, I am inviting you to come to New York City to explore it with me. I am teaching a workshop called Dancer as Motif. And it's really unlike anything else that I teach. But before I tell you about it, let me show you something that completely changed the way that I photograph dance. See, most photographers think that photographing ballet is about speed. is about fast shutter, peak action, freezing the jump. But what actually makes dance powerful in a still image isn't the single moment. It's anticipation. It's understanding what's about to happen just before it happens. And that's exactly what we focus on in this workshop. And later on in this video, I will show you how we build from working with a single dancer up to a trio and why that progression matters. If you followed this channel for a while, you've probably seen this work evolve. My own interest in ballet actually goes all the way back to childhood. My father's friend, the painter Robert Heindell, introduced me to ballet as a serious art form through his paintings and that really planted the seed. Later on, I became fascinated with how different artists approached movement. From Dega to Ainstat to Alexi Broovich's blurred motion studies and even Aiko Hosoya's metaphor-driven figure work, each of these artists showed me something about time, gesture, and the human form that goes beyond simply freezing a pose. And over the past 5 years, I've been working to develop my own voice within that tradition. Which brings me back to this workshop. So, this is the second year that we're offering Dancer's Motif. Last year was absolutely incredible. So this year it's going to take place from April 24th through 26th in New York City. Here's how we teach it. We start simple. One dancer controlled movement. So we study things like geometry, line, and gesture. [clears throat] And then we introduce complexity. A second dancer, a third. We begin looking at interaction, spacing, visual tension. And eventually we introduce the component of time. We work with repeatable choreographed phrases. So you're not just reacting, you're learning to anticipate. You begin to feel what's about to happen before it happens. And that shift from reacting to actually anticipating changes everything. This is what I meant earlier about building from one dancer to a trio. So we design the progression intentionally so complexity grows in a way that is understandable. You're not overwhelmed. You're building visual awareness step by step. And what makes this workshop special is that I'm not teaching it alone. Alexander Light, who has choreographed many of the images that you see on this channel, teaches alongside me. While I guide the photography, she guides the movements. So, you're not just photographing dancers, you're actually understanding dance. And that complexity changes the photographs that you make. Especially if you've never worked with ballet before, it makes all the difference. And in addition to Alexandra, we'll be working with three dancers this year. Ava Rose Dylan is returning, and many of you already know her from past projects. She's an extraordinary collaborator and a true professional. We are also welcoming two new dancers. Hannah J is a New York-based dancer who has trained with some of the most respected companies in the country. And she brings both performance and teaching experience. And Jean Crim is a modern ballet dancer currently performing in New York, featured in the New York Times, and he brings a completely different physical vocabulary to the work. together. The range of motion that we're going to be exploring is incredibly exciting. For me, this workshop is not just about technique. It's about learning how to see the human figure differently to understand gesture, to understand time, and to see how complexity can emerge from simplicity. It's honestly one of my favorite things that I teach all year. If this is the kind of work that you've wanted to explore, really explore, then I'd love to have you join us. All of the details are going to be in the description below this video, or you can go over to tedfores. com. You'll see it on the homepage. This workshop does fill up quickly, so if you are interested, I strongly recommend you reserve your spot soon. I cannot wait to get back to New York City once again. And if you have any questions, drop them below. I will see you in the next video. Until then