Jake Joe 2020-Company Photo Shoot

This past weekend, we were thrilled to have the one and only Jake Joe Photography from Arizona, fly in to capture our competition teams. Due to COVID restrictions, we had to spread the shoot out to 5 dancers every 90 minutes. Our weekend began Friday at 2:00pm and was finished Sunday at 4:00pm. Months of prep go into creating a successful and FUN photo shoot weekend. This year, to go with the theme of HAPPINESS & A BRAND NEW DAY, we chose our main color backdrop as yellow. I feel that when you look at the color yellow, it creates a feeling of a bright, sunshiney-day. In this 90 minute session, we had to get through 3 different mini-sessions for each of the 5 dancers. Dancers begin in street clothes for headshots to utilize for college resumes, photogenic competitions, applying for modeling jobs, etc. Next we move to our yellow backdrop for our first round of dance poses and our first "dance attire" look, then moving to the black backdrop, which I use more for advertising. To successfully pull this off in 90 minutes, dancers must come prepared. Dancers ages 4-19 have to bring 12-15 rehearsed and perfected dance poses, all ranging in extensions, flexibility, jumps, floorwork, abstract shape, and specialty genres, as well as two different "looks" in dance attire, and their street clothes look. Seeing our newest company members experience this shoot for the first time is so refreshing. The nerves and excitement bottled up into one little talented dancer is just fun! As this was our 5th Company Photo Shoot with Jake Joe, seeing how our more experienced dancers have evolved into these confident, well groomed, little professionals is nothing short of watching your own children succeed. All in all, it was a fabulous weekend of dance. I have already had the privilege of catching a few sneak-peaks at some edited images, and this years photos will once again be even better than the year before. Bravo dancers, and thank you Jake Joe Photography for being a longtime friend of PM's.