Matter on DePrince

Michaela DePrince at Danceworks ib 7 July 2015

Photographer Jordan Matter

Copyright 2015 Jordan Matter

All rights reserved

On 7 July 2015, Michaela DePrince, now a coryphée with the Dutch National Ballet, gave a master class at Danceworks. Ciara Sturrock attended the class and wrote a note of her experience which I incorporated into my article Michaela's Masterclass 8 July 2015.

The well known American photographer Jordan Matter was in the studio and he photographed Michaela as she taught. Yesterday Danceworks sent me one of his photos and gave me permission to reproduce it in this post. I must stress that copyright subsists in the photo and no other person may reproduce it without Jordan Matter or Danceworks's consent. I am very grateful to Lesley Osman, general manager of Danceworks, and Jordan Matter for allowing me to publish this work.

If you visit his website you will see that Jordan Matter specializes in photographing dancers. Much of his work is published in book form. Dancers among Us was published by The New York Times last year. It includes my very favourite picture of DePrince. Matter has photographed her in the air wearing cut off jeans and yellow chequered top with her dog in a woodland clearing. Dancers After Dark will be on sale next year. Tiny Dancers Among Us, a portfolio of photographs of younger dancers, will be published in 2017.

Since the master class Michaela DePrince has danced in Cinderella at the Coliseum (see my review Wheeldon's Cinderella 13 July 2015 and Gita's Bend it Like Cinders 18 July 2015). DePrince has also been elevated to coryphée. This is a meteoric rise in that she joined the Junior Company only two years ago. I congratulate her on her promotion and wish her well for the future. 

Many of DePrince's contemporaries in the Junior Company have also done well and I mentioned their successes in The Junior Company One Year On 18 July 2015. Ernst Meisner, the artistic co-ordinator of the Junior Company spoke to the London Ballet Circle on 20 July 2015. As a consequence of Ernst Meisner's visit plans are being drawn up to set up a British Friends of the Dutch National Ballet . I hope it will lead to even more opportunities to bring DePrince and the Company's other beautiful dancers to this country. 

My next opportunity to see DePrince and those other dancers on stage will come with the opening gala on 8 Sept. 

I have written a lot of articles on DePrince over the last two years and you will find links to most of them at Michaela DePrince at TEDx Amsterdam 28 Nov 2014.