There’s always a funny getting-to-know-you period whenever I work with a new dancer whom I’ve never had the privilege of working with, a time when translating the dancer’s prowess to a place where movement is still can be a little difficult at first. I have to explain that the more awkward it feels in the moment, the more movement it will have in the frame. Some dancers don’t ever grasp the understanding that for a dance photograph to be successful (in my particular idiom, that is) it has to exist both in a place before and a place after the exposure. Ashley is one of those few dancers that from the get-go had no trouble setting aside the idea of movement for the sake of the moment.

Ashley dances for Trey McIntyre Project, based in Boise, Idaho, and I was lucky enough to catch her on tour in Portland. She’s a fascinating and powerful dancer, graceful and unassuming: the consummate professional.