In 2017, St.
Louis based professional photographers Kelly Pratt & Ian Kreidich, a team of husband-and-wife came up with an idea of taking pictures of ballet dancers. “What if we took pictures of ballet dancers, with dogs?”
The photographed their first duo Ericka and Baxter, an English Bulldog and Kelly and Ian immediately fell in love with the concept. The couple photographed 100 dancers & 100 dogs in over 10 cities across the country in just two and a half years.
”DANCERS & DOGS shows the more light-hearted, human side of dancers. The soul of this book is not about perfection (an idea which can be very hard for ballet dancers!).
It’s about being in the moment and experiencing joy. Because dogs don’t care if you have the highest arabesque or can do 32 perfect fouettes. They just love you as you are.”– Kelly Pratt & Ian Kreidich.
Kelly told she asked Ian, “What if we did pictures of dancers, with dogs? Ian looked at me like I was crazy. But I told him to just “Go with it.” I saw the whole look in my head – the simple, clean backgrounds, the simple clothing styles, the lighting.”
“We worked with our friends, the dancers of the St. Louis Ballet.“
“The resulting images really seemed to connect with people! Ballet is often seen as stuffy, moody, or unapproachable, and we feel like this project helps people see the lighter side of dancers – their humanity, and their silliness.“
“We posted a recap video on social media in 2018…and that’s when things went crazy. We went VIRAL.
The project grew immensely within two weeks. 41 million viewers have seen that original viral video. Journalist were contacting us from around the world, wanting to feature Dancers & Dogs. That was when we fully realized that this was something special to so many people.
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”We get told every day how Dancers & Dogs gives people a smile when they needed one. And if we’re doing that, that’s all that matters. We have learned a lot during this process. We were not animal photographers when we started out.”
”But along the way we have learned how to work on a dog’s level. We’ve worked with some of the best dancers and dog trainers in the country, and made so many new friendships. This book is a celebration of all of the people (and dogs) we’ve met and our amazing followers, who have kept us going!”
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