More photos from the DC Area Arthur Murray Spring Freestyles. This was the first of their 4 local events that we covered last year. It was held at the Sheraton Premiere in Tysons Corner, VA. This is a site of many of their events, and overall a great ballroom for photography. Additionally with the available balcony, we have a lot of flexibility in setting up our lights. On balance it is always nice to work at a familiar venue!
As can be seen this room offers a lot of options from photography. With this intention, you need to have different approaches to photos. Especially since you will be there for many hours of a weekend. In order to get a variety of images to keep fresh, it is useful to change your body position, and your angle to the dancers out there. You can go from a low angle, a higher angle, to change the backgrounds in the photos. With the length of the room, it still allows you to blur the backgrounds.
In 2012, Arthur Murray dance studios celebrates their centennial as a company. Overall, the longevity has to be admired – only a privileged few have been around since then! Their studios and instructors introduce so many around the world to ballroom dance. In fact, this is where my wife and I discovered dancing. Still, we continue to go to the studio in Tysons Corner to stay in touch with the community.
A Tango from the Silver Spring studio:
A Quickstep from the Alexandria Studios:
Centennial celebration
Over the year, there were themed parties and events which highlighted the changes and styles since the company’s inception. At the first event of the year, their Spring Freestyles, the staff of the DC Area studios came together. Prior to the event, they created a coordinated show featuring each of the studios. Entitled, “Dancing Through the Decades” it was an amazing showcase of all of these professionals. TimeLine Media was asked to video tape the performance which we were happy to do! I will see if I can get the entire video posted to the blog, as it was a great showcase of the talent of the dancers!
From the Ashburn, Virginia studio
Ladies from the Maryland studios
From the Chevy Chase, Maryland dance studio:
Tysons Corner, Virginia studio:
From the Gaithersburg, Maryland studio:
One of my favorites from the show was the photos of Leisa & Joe Howard from the Columbia studio. I have so many amazing photos of these champion dancers doing showcases and professional competitions from the last few years, but this one was a nice moment –
There was more production value put into this show than any I have seen in ballroom. The music seamlessly changed through all the decades represented, in addition to a video presentation that highlighted important points in Arthur Murray history.
Thanks again to Steve and Mark Theiss that have been very supportive of our photography, and allow us to partner with them to get some great images of their local events. Best of luck for the next century of dancing!
These photos are from another great event that TimeLine Media photographs each year, the River City Ballroom Dance Competition. Competition organizers Veronica Braun and Lee Nugent from Simply Ballroom VA in Richmond have worked hard to put together a really nice event for dancers to show off for judges and studio friends. It is held at the Greater Richmond Convention Center which has a large high-ceiling room with a beautiful dance floor.
It is also nice to see so many familiar dancers at this event. Being from the northern Virginia area, it is nice to see many instructors, dancers that recognize us, and know what we do. It emphatically does make for better photos! The trip to Richmond is very drivable. Additionally, the area around the convention center is very convenient to hotels, restaurants. Also it gives a nice variety to the type of venues we shoot. I am much more confident if anyone asks for photos in a large convention center room that I can light the room to get good exposures.
The convention center room is so large that I do have to adjust the way I light the dance floor, but we still get beautiful images of dancers in all styles. This year, they are planning a Professional Showcase Challenge to add to the program which should be a great show! We are excited about going back to cover the event this year, and we look forward to making more great images. See you there!
