LambaLena on 35mm

The Portland Zouk community is really grateful to have Lena join the land of evergreen, awesome food carts & weirdness. Lena specializes in Lambada, which is a lovely partner dance style that I hope to one day dance well. 

You can easily see from the photos that Lena has experience with ballet and contemporary dance, dance forms that amaze me always. What is best about having her as a new instructor here in Portland though is really, her silly personality. Anyone who knows her would most likely describe her as cute & silly. Quirky. Personable, & respectable. As a Japanese person, I'm happy to have happa Lena to speak Japanese with too!

Thanks for being here Lena ^^. 

Masumi

Nikki: Kindness

A few months ago I had the privilege of shooting with contemporary dancer Nikki Leopold. For those who already know my shooting style, we started off by dancing improv to some music. Many dancers have lovely movement but there was something extremely different with Nikki. Moments within her dancing, I started to feel emotional. Her movement demonstrated something that deeply moved me. It was unfeigned kindness. Accepting of pain that may be received, yet understanding of circumstances, still kind. 

That is what I love about improv - to me it is the open door to showing you who are. At least for myself when dancing improv, though my technique may often lack my emotions are expressed, putting heart into movement. I appreciated her demonstrating her genuine self. As a photographer it is my job to photograph the beauty of somebody's authenticity and to have viewers feel what I feel. To see the beauty that I see. 

The images from this session made such an impression upon me that I wanted to create a book of it for my photo show that came around the next month. Sadly it did not work out but I hope that you enjoy the photos. I hope that you can feel the kindness that I felt that day.

Masumi