Back when Matt and I were engaged, we took dance lessons in preparation for our wedding. We ended up enjoying it so much that we’ve decided that each year we are going to learn a new style of dance. Enter Peter, our wonderful Ukrainian instructor, from the Star Dance School, stage right. Knowing that I am a photographer, he asked if he and his new Russian dance partner Anna could get some photos done for promotional materials. I was more than happy to oblige. In the end, we realized that the studio didn’t make for the best background so we will likely reshoot the dance shots, but we still made the best of our time that day, and took time to play with their new puppy Angel.
Anna speaks limited English, so most of the time Peter would translate for her. Things really started getting fun after Peter gave me a perplexed look and said, “She says she wants to do shots on the floor, but not dancing on the floor. Do you know what she means???” Luckily both Anna and I are well versed in pantomime, and I got what she was intending. Before I knew it, she was voguing like a pro, and I felt just like Nigel Barker… but with much more hair. At first as she would move into a good pose, I would say, yes, Yes! YES!!!! But that didn’t seem to get her to hold the pose. Then it hit me! Watching all those James Bond movies paid off. Instead of saying yes, Yes! YES!!! I started saying, da, Da! DA!!!! Sure enough, it worked. The only problem was that once I got home and Matt asked if the shoot went well, I answered, “Da! I er, ah, mean, YES!”
