Dane Shitagi is a photographer known for his "Ballerina Project" which photographs ballerinas performing traditional ballet moves in nontraditional settings. He strives to show the struggle and passion it takes to be a ballerina rather than portraying them in stereotypical ways. While he originally shot in urban locations, he now photographs ballerinas around the world in places like beaches and parks. The project now includes over 1,000 photographs and Shitagi continues shooting 50-60 ballerinas per year. Through social media, the project now has over 1 million followers on Instagram and has led to commercial photography jobs for Shitagi.

1. DANESHITAGI
n a recent morning in San Francisco, the fog was so dense that
Dane Shitagi couldn’t get the photograph he was after: a ballerina
en pointe on a grassy hill with the Golden Gate Bridge in the back-
ground. He and his subject waited patiently for the fog to lift, and
the resulting image was even more striking than Shitagi had envi-
sioned. “Sometimes you get the most beautiful shots when the situation is less than
perfect,” he says.
DaneGreat
Dane Shitagi keeps the art world on its toes
with The Ballerina Project
Since the start of the new millennium,
the New York-based photographer has
been taking dancers out of their element
and photographing them performing tra-
ditional moves in nontraditional settings.
The result is a perfect balance of grace
and grit. “I stay away from what people
believe a ballerina to be. Instead, I focus
on the struggle and passion it takes to
be one,” he says.
In the beginning, Shitagi’s locations
were largely urban cityscapes like sub-
way platforms and handball courts. Over
time, the project has evolved to include
more serene spaces such as beaches, lush
green parks and waterfalls in Hawaii,
South America, Canada, France and
Austria. Still, his goal remains the same:
Keep the dancers front and center and
the locations secondary. “The world is
our stage,” says Shitagi.
The photographer, who hails from
Honolulu, snapped images from a young
age and started working professionally
at 15. He moved to New York in 1996,
and four years later photographed his
first dancer. The project’s images now
exceed 1,000, and Shitagi continues to
shoot as many as 50 to 60 dancers a year
and to grow his social media presence.
When the project launched, Instagram
didn’t exist. Now, The Ballerina Project is
poised to exceed 1 million followers on
the visually driven platform. (Shitagi says
the project averages 1,300 new followers a
day.) Because of the popularity of his bal-
letic images, Shitagi has landed jobs shoot-
ing campaigns for Longchamp, Wolford
luxury hosiery and AG Jeans.
After all these years, Shitagi is still
wowed by the dancers’ commitment to
their craft. As he says, “You can pick up a
camera and become a photographer later
in life, but you cannot, at ‘some’ point,
become a ballerina.” — Michele Shapiro
Dane Shitagi has
photographed more
than a thousand ballet
dancers, including
(clockwise from upper
left) Juliet Doherty,
Katie Boren and
Stephanie Williams.
138 FEBRUARY 2016 | WATCH! cbswatchmagazine.com