Experimental Photoworks wrote:
The dancers/photographers I know that have been published in dance magazeins were not models they were dancers who were part of a dance troupe/dance career and they were photographed by being dancers not by being models....

That is VERY true. Sometimes in the ad or on the photo you'll see the dancers name and what professional dance team or ballet company he or she is with.

FaithK wrote:
Very good point.. that's what i was trying to portray.. that dancers are graceful and understand the placement of their body just a little better than models. But dancers and models go hand in hand.. they are both really talented.. one is not better than the other. One expresses themselves through photos, and one through movement. Thanks for your message

Very good dancers, from very good dance companies (be they classical ballet or moder dance) by necessity must pose for photographers so that the shows can be advertised in the media. This means that dancers can not only dance but they must also be very good models. Because so many (even the good dance companies) dancers dance on very low budgets the dancers that I have the pleasure of having in my studio happen to be pretty good at applying their own makeup.

And while I am not going to state this too loudly here, dancers are so confident of their bodies that nudity, in most cases is not only not important but they will volunteer even when not asked. It is very easy to photograph  dancers when these "limits" are not an issue.

Just like all models who say they are models are sometimes not models, not all dancers who say they are dancers, are indeed dancers. But if you are lucky to photograph a good dancer, you can be sure that he or she will be a good model.

My now 9 year old granddaughter started ballet at 5. Here she is and she has poise in spades.

Alexwh

alexwh wrote:
I beg to differ on the almost negative opinion given here on dancers. I have photographed many dancers.  Dancers, particularly good ones, have an extraordinary relationship with their body and how it occupies space. You can surround a dancer with lights that are near and the dancer will instinctively know how far they are and their relation to their outstretched limbs. I have told many a dancer to have a rest during a portrait session and after that rest they will return to the exact (and unmarked spot) there were occupying. More startling as I look through my camera I need not re-focus. Just about anything a human can do a good dancer can do with more grace and poise.

..... Alexwh

If I had the choice of photographing a model with no experience or a dancer with no modelling experience, the dancer would get it every time.

But watch they don't stand on their toes all time.

RED Photographic wrote:

If I had the choice of photographing a model with no experience or a dancer with no modelling experience, the dancer would get it every time.

But watch they don't stand on their toes all time.

Modern dancers never do.

alexwh wrote:

Modern dancers never do.

Is that modern dance dancers never do or dancers today never do?

timothy dolph wrote:
Title: "My Mom Made Me Take This Class"

rofl

timothy dolph wrote:
Title: "My Mom Made Me Take This Class" 
I have sold this print plenty of times.  Seems that the girls love it.  Most of them were forced to take ballet at some point of their lives and can relate to the image.  (note the cig butts on the floor)

see more at http://www.theooh.com

  I love that picture.

alexwh wrote:
I have told many a dancer to have a rest during a portrait session and after that rest they will return to the exact (and unmarked spot) there were occupying. More startling as I look through my camera I need not re-focus. Just about anything a human can do a good dancer can do with more grace and poise.

That's an accurate observation about dancers holding a pose. In the film era, told one to hold an awkward pose while I changed my film, then I turned around, reloaded and she was still there exactly the way I left her. It was like being in a museum and turning around for second look at a statue.

alexwh wrote:

Very good dancers, from very good dance companies (be they classical ballet or moder dance) by necessity must pose for photographers so that the shows can be advertised in the media. This means that dancers can not only dance but they must also be very good models. Because so many (even the good dance companies) dancers dance on very low budgets the dancers that I have the pleasure of having in my studio happen to be pretty good at applying their own makeup.

And while I am not going to state this too loudly here, dancers are so confident of their bodies that nudity, in most cases is not only not important but they will volunteer even when not asked. It is very easy to photograph  dancers when these "limits" are not an issue.

Just like all models who say they are models are sometimes not models, not all dancers who say they are dancers, are indeed dancers. But if you are lucky to photograph a good dancer, you can be sure that he or she will be a good model.

My now 9 year old granddaughter started ballet at 5. Here she is and she has poise in spades.

Alexwh

Awwww, your granddaughter is so adorable!  Her pose looks so natural and she has such a beautiful face, looks like you've got a model on your hands

To the OP, I would suggest contacting dance supply catalogs as well.  I've dances for many years and I have known a few dancers who have appeared in catalogs.  Although, I'm assuming you would have to be in the same area where the catalog is published.  I know there's a few dancewear suppliers with their own catalogs based out of CA.  Good luck!