Initially we planned to make a bicycle tour to the annual Thunderbird´s Grand Mid-Summer Pow Wow deep inside Queens on July 30th 2016. We changed our plans because of upcoming clouds and ended up under the nearest shelter, just before the rain started to get serious. It was a small tree in the Socrates Sculpture Park and it turned out to be a good choice, because the park was hosting the Suite Summer Festival at the same time!
We enjoyed watching several dance groups performing in the increasing summer rain. One group in particular, consisting of 3 young women was very passionate about their choreography. They showed the public an emotional, dramatic dance with a lot of body communication called “Migrations”
After their initial dance they decided to repeat the performance on a nearby stage, which was all covered by a shallow film of rainwater. It looked great! The sprinkles of water which were shaken of their bodies with each spin added another kinetic visualization level. I tried to capture this with relatively slow shutter speeds around 1/200 second.
Once they finished I approached the dancers and asked them for their group name. As it turned out they were so new that they did not even had a name :) Luckily they had a Choreographer, which goes by the name Patrick O’Brien.
Thank you for sharing your experience in the park. PATRICK O’BRIEN is an new and upcoming choreographer in NYC. His work is brilliant and always emotionally motived. He is my favorite. The dancers he chooses to work with are exceptionally talented, technically excellent and perform his pieces with intense passion. Always. I was out of the country and unfortunately missed this performance in the park. Again, thank you for your wonderful review and gorgeous photography of the dancers. Felt like I was there. #PatrickOBrien
Your comments hit home to me…that is my daughter with the Pinkish hair. She just graduated form the Joffrey Ballet School in NYC…her name is Alexandra Knapp. Keep looking for her in the years to come. She is from Pittsburgh. And I can say as objectively as I can…she is one of the best
I remember the dancer named Alexandra Knapp from Joffrey. Talented and passionate, indeed!