—— dear Anna,
thank you for your message. the dancers have a pretty busy week with numerous rehearsals and representations so, unfortunately, we can’t answer your request. thank you for your understanding.
sincerely, Judith.
this is the email i received when trying to be professional and asking for the permission to shoot dancers from a company-i-cannot-mention in this place-which-must-not-be-named. but what Judith didn’t know, is that i had already been camping out there for three days, socialising with the people working there and running up to anyone who seemed like they belonged to this dance company-i-cannot-mention in order to pitch them my project. after three days of struggle on the very last day before the exhibition, Madison and Mario, two adventurous and lovely dancers from that company-i-can-still-not-mention, finally agreed to dance for me. and so they did. they gracefully waved their bodies under Arles’ heavy heat for me. and the security staff even discretely tolerated my presence. so thank you Madi, thank you Mario, thank you security staff and thank you Judith for giving me the refusal that became the starting point of my photography series.
