Summer Shoot

During the summer it's usually at least a little bit warmer than during the winter here in Sweden. So this time of the year it feels completely ok to do photo shoots with less clothes on than three layers of fur coats. One sunny day I got together with photographer Peter Nilsson to do a shoot, and here is the result!

Photo: Peter Nilsson

Burlesque Ballet Shoot

I've done several shoots with photographer Charlotte Hall. We've always done our shoots outside though, so we decided to go indoors for once, to do a burlesque ballet session! The result is a mix of classic ballet pictures, and a few that goes more towards my burlesque occupation. Voilà!

Photo: Charlotte Hall

Vadim Stein

As I love both dance and photography, I simply love the work of Vadim Stein! And I think you might too... Stein was born in Ukraine, but now works as a photographer, sculptor, and stage designer in St. Petersburg. Here are some of his amazing sculpture-like dance photos!

For more, check out Vadim Stein's Facebook page!

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Polaroids In The Forest

I love shooting with Jan Persson! Not only is he a very good photographer, but he also liks to experiment with his arsenal of cameras from different ages. For the pictures below we got together in the woods to see what we could do with his Polaroid. I love how the colors turned out! The two black and white photos were taken with an old camera from the 40s, that were used to take pictures from planes during WWII. With that one you have to stand really still! As my face got a bit blurry in one of them I obviously didn't stand still enough. My bad... Anyway - here is the result!

Beneath The Blossoming Trees...

In the center of Stockholm lies a park called Kungsträdgården (The King's Garden). When spring finally arrives and the Swedes come out of hibernation, this is one of the places they gather en masse, frighteningly staring up at that big shiny thing in the sky - wondering what it is, at the same time they bask in that lovely light. The two longest sides of the park are lined with cherry trees, and for a short time each spring they they bloom, transforming Kungsträdgården to a fairytale park. Photographer Charlotte Hall came up with the splendid idea to do a shoot beneath these trees, so to match the blossoms I put on a light pink vintage dress from the 50s and my pointe shoes. And here is the result!

After the shoot, when I came home, I took my bra off and flower petals fell out of it. Haha!

Photo: Charlotte Hall

In The Royal Garden...

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This is Drottningholm Palace, where the King and Queen of Sweden live. One grey, cold and stormy day last week me and photographer Charlotte Hall went there to do a shoot in their lovely garden. And of course it had to start raining too, just as I tried to let my curls out behind the shelter of a big tree - that didn't really give any shelter for the storm though... Charlotte held an umbrella over me as I tied my pointe shoes on and took my warm clothes off, and then we performed probably the quickest shoot in history! Haha! We shot at two different locations, and when Charlotte checked the time span we had been shooting for in her camera, it turned out we had been working for a total amount of ten minutes! But we still managed to get 166 photos - which almost all were usable according to Mrs Hall. So I guess this proves that a shoot really doesn't have to be that long if both the photographer and the model at least have some clue of what they're doing...

So, here are some of the pictures we managed to produce! I'm actually glad it was raining and that the wind kept blowing through my hair, as that just helped in making the photos look the way they do. The dress I'm wearing is a tulle ball gown from the 40s, which I found on coralvintage on Etsy.

All photos by Charlotte Hall.

Anna Pavlova

As you know, I love ballet. So today I will tell you the story about one of the worlds biggest ballerinas - Prima Ballerina Anna Pavlova (1881 - 1931).

1920 (Source)

Anna was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, and after seeing a performance of The Sleeping Beauty when she was 8 years old, she decided she wanter to become a ballerina. "I always wanted to dance; from my youngest years...Thus I built castles in the air out of my hopes and dreams", she said herself about her passion for ballet. She was accepted by the St. Petersburg Imperial Ballet School, and made her company debut in 1899. 

Anna in the role that made her famous - The Dying Swan, 1905. Source

Except for her natural talent for dancing, Anna was also a hard worker. As she said herself; "No one can arrive for being talented alone. God gives talent, work transforms talent into genius". Her career blossomed fast, but it wasn't until 1905 she really made her breakthrough, by dancing the swan in Michel Fokine's The Dying Swan, with music by Camille Saint-Saëns. This became her signature role. But of course she danced many big roles in other big ballets too, and just seven years into her career she was promoted to prima ballerina - the second highest title (and quite rare) awarded to a ballerina. 

Anna in 1905. Source

In 1911 she formed her own ballet company, with which she toured around the whole world. At age fifty, after dancing for thirty years, she decided to take a little Christmas vacation - but with the intention of returning to ballet after giving her body a bit of rest. On her way home the train she was on got into an accident. Anna was unharmed, but had to wait out the delay on the chilly platform - only wearing her silk pajamas and a thin jacket - for twelve hours. A few days later she developed double pneumonia. She was told she required an operation to get rid of the disease, but that if she went through with it, she would never be able to dance again. Her reply to this was; "If I can't dance I'd rather be dead". On January 23, 1931, she died in The Hague, in the early morning. On her deathbed she asked to see her swan costume one final time...

Anna and her pet swan. Source

Her ashes wer buried at Golders Green Cemetery, near the Ivy House, in London, where she had lived together with her husband and manager Victor Dandré. The house had an ornamental lake, where Anna used to feed her pet swans. In the picture above you can see her with her favorite swan, Jack. She loved animals and also had a Siamese cat, several dogs, and other birds. Here are a few more photos of this beautiful legend...

In Italy, 1925. Source

In her dressing room. Source

Photo: Ira L. Hill. Source

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A pait of Anna's well worn pointe shoes, before 1917. Source