behind the scenes: dancing at the cantor

Recently I've been on a bit of a creative streak, and finally got around to making a dance video with a friend. It was a lot of work (and a lot of trial and error), but I'm so happy to share the results with you.

1: Inspiration
Originally, my idea was to conduct an interview with someone, in Vogue's 73 Questions style. However, I ran into a road bump when I realized it would be very hard to showcase my own personal fashion (one of the points I wanted to hit), while interviewing someone else.

I focused on the idea of a fluid, fashion-orientated video, with a bit of theatricality, and it morphed into a dance video, inspire by Maddie and Mackenzie Ziegler's Glamour video - which I've watched too many times to count already, and highly recommend!

2: Brainstorm
I took my two videos, and meshed them together to create the wardrobe, soundtrack, and venue. I already had a dancer in mind, as we've been friends for ages, and have already filmed before, so that was a breeze.

I then raided other people's closets (I'm a bit of a safe dresser), and assembled a collection of 5 outfits that were my style, but elevated.

3: Shoot
The day of the shoot we ran into a couple of bumps. I was set on the idea of shooting in an art museum, which was technically not allowed (we didn't have a PR permit, as I didn't think they would let a ballerina prance around next to Thiebauds and Diebenkorns). A lot of the shots inside (the marble and the gallery spaces), were shot incognito, which limited us in terms of angle of view and doing retakes.

In the end though, I really like how it came out, and all the different places we shot at - though I still wish I had more from the marble staircase.

4: Post-processing
As someone who only has a very basic grasp of iMovie, all I did was try and match the movements with the music. Which, surprisingly, took a lot of work!

I also switched out the music last minute; I was planning on using "Comment Te Dire Adieu" by Françoise Hardy, but chose "Cruel" by St. Vincent instead, because it has more of an editorial feel. Because the beat and tempo were the same, it worked better than expected.

I would have also shot with higher resolution, so it looked a bit more professional. And probably found one of those rigs so I wasn't so shaky!

I would so appreciate it if you could take a look and let me know what you think!

xx
Angelina

p.s. here's a piece called Dancing at the Louvre by Faith Ringgold (;