These images are of Guiseppe Picone and Rebecca Sewell of English National Ballet performing in Giselle. Taken during a performance at the Manchester Palace Theatre. There is a bridge running across the width of the stage just behind the proscenium arch. I worked for English National Ballet for 12 years or so on the stage crew so I know my way around the backstage of a theatre. On this occasion I went up after the interval and waited. I had one camera and a 70-200 lens with the lens hood taped up. Dropping anything at all at this point would have been a terminal career move to say the least and of course could have seriously injured one or both of the dancers. An SLR and zoom lens dropping from 35 ft would be very painful I’m sure.
I was shooting on transparency in those days, around 1995 I think. Ektachrome T320 tungsten balanced pushed at least one stop if not two. Wide open at 2.8 and probably a 30th of second with me wedged into the catwalk. At least they were not running around dancing so a slow shutter speed was ok and framing was easy. No bracketing or “chimping” the screen on the back to check everything.
It looks like Guiseppe is looking straight at me but he cannot see me because there is a bar full of lights between me and him. I was a little disconcerted though. The last thing I want to do is distract a dancer when he is supposed to be dying!
In those pre digital camera days I was scanning everything to get a digital file although the only retouching on these images is to take out a seam in the dance floor lino.
© Patrick Baldwin 1995. All rights reserved.
© Patrick Baldwin 1995. All rights reserved.
