A Summer Like No Other

Posted on September 7, 2012

As part of her day-by-day countdown to Big Dance Week 2012, July 7–15, Dance Today photographer Carole Edrich posted a different dance-related photo a day on her blog. Now, the other side of Big Dance Week, Carole has decided to continue blogging and is sharing her photographs for this Summer Of Dance with Dance Today. In this penultimate post, she talks about what she has posted and why…

The Summer of Dance is slowing right down which is why last week’s images are on just three subjects. While I’m working hard to clear the decks for the Mayor’s Thames Festival this weekend I’ve also been processing loads of shots from recent events.

I was gutted not to make it to the Mandala rehearsals in Birmingham, owing to personal reasons, as the Asian fusion dance they’ll be performing this weekend sounds absolutely great, but there were compensations.

Dancesation Expo, held in support of DanceAid was really great fun, and had its organiser Yvonne Chan not told me I’d never have known it was the first event she had ever promoted. It won’t be the last. She would like to increase the total they raised for the charity (if you’d like to help her, donate at http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/dancesationexpo) and I’m not sure how she managed to persuade me but next year I’ll be dancing in it and – just for my act – she’ll be taking photos.

Meanwhile, although this image marks the fact that I’ve finished processing the shots of Akademi’s Community Performance, I’m still working my way through images of Notting Hill Carnival.

This week I’ve chosen an image of Candice Doogan and Roberto de Rosales dancing salsa from Dancesation Expo. One of a series, it shows how much they were putting into their dance.

As well as taking photographs for Dance Today,Carole Edrich is available for commissioning. Reach her through her Twitter ID @CE_Images or through her dance photography blog.

Nicola Rayner

Nicola Rayner was editor of Dance Today from 2010 to 2015. She has written for a number of publications including The Guardian, The Independent and Time Out Buenos Aires, where she cut her teeth as a dance journalist working on the tango section. Today she continues to dance everything from ballroom to breakdance, with varying degrees of success. Her debut novel, The Girl Before You, was published last year in paperback, ebook and audiobook.