Intervals, Behind the Curtains

This series was photographed during the International Ballet Company of Moldova’s Spanish tour, moving between dressing rooms and the wings of the stage with analogue cameras in hand. The company brings together dancers from different corners of the world, where many languages and personal histories meet in one shared physical language. Following their performances of Swan Lake and The Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky, the project began tracing Slavic roots through music and choreography, observing how heritage lives on in gesture, posture, and the quiet discipline that carries tradition into the present.

Having spent years documenting what happens behind the scenes of a show, this project continued that way of looking. What felt new was the specific rhythm of classical ballet. Less attention was given to the audience’s perspective and more to what unfolded just out of sight: taped feet, quiet stretching in dressing room corners, the soft repetition of corrections in half light. Dancers adjusted one another’s costumes, fixed ribbons, and smoothed fabric back into place.

After each scene, they returned slightly out of breath, sometimes exchanging a few words of encouragement or a brief smile before preparing to step onstage again. There were moments of stillness—saving energy, steadying breath. With a background in contemporary dance and body expression, there is a close connection to these details: the effort within the elegance, the physical labor behind each precise movement.

As classical ballet is increasingly viewed through contemporary cultural conversations, it appears less fixed and more alive. This project reflects on how tradition survives—not by remaining untouched, but by being practiced and reinterpreted in new places and by new bodies. By shifting focus from spectacle to presence and from perfection to process, ballet emerges as a space where heritage is carried forward through discipline, memory, and quiet dedication.