Originally published Sunday, April 5, 2009 at 12:00 AM
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Ballerina moves smoothly into dancing images
Angela Sterling, a retired Pacific Northwest Ballet ballerina, has forged a successful second career as an international dance photographer.
Seattle Times arts writer
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ANGELA STERLING
Angela Sterling used to dance with the Pacific Northwest Ballet — now she takes pictures for the company. Shown here: "Swan Lake," which opens April 9.
BEN KIST
A serious back injury led Angela Sterling from dancing to photography.
![<strong>"Agon,"</strong> choreographed by George Balanchine, featuring Pacific Northwest Ballet dancers (from left) Maria Chapman, Benjamin Griffiths, Lesley Rausch<br />
<strong>Sterling</strong>: "That used to be Linnette Hitchin, Brent Davi and me; we used to do [this] pas de trois. I know that almost like the back of my own hand. Having dancers like Maria, Ben and Lesley was like putting whipped cream on top of an incredible grouping of ice cream. The three of them are wonderful jumpers. They knew I was out there — sometimes they look directly in the camera when I'm at dress rehearsals. That's one of the moments where they say, 'We hope we do it as well as you did it; we saw you on the video.' That's really close to my heart because I danced that role so many times."</p>](/ABPub/2009/04/01/2008967008.jpg "<strong>\"Agon,\"</strong> choreographed by George Balanchine, featuring Pacific Northwest Ballet dancers (from left) Maria Chapman, Benjamin Griffiths, Lesley Rausch<br />
<strong>Sterling</strong>: \"That used to be Linnette Hitchin, Brent Davi and me; we used to do [this] pas de trois. I know that almost like the back of my own hand. Having dancers like Maria, Ben and Lesley was like putting whipped cream on top of an incredible grouping of ice cream. The three of them are wonderful jumpers. They knew I was out there — sometimes they look directly in the camera when I'm at dress rehearsals. That's one of the moments where they say, 'We hope we do it as well as you did it; we saw you on the video.' That's really close to my heart because I danced that role so many times.\"</p>")
ANGELA STERLING
"Agon," choreographed by George Balanchine, featuring Pacific Northwest Ballet dancers (from left) Maria Chapman, Benjamin Griffiths, Lesley Rausch
Sterling: "That used to be Linnette Hitchin, Brent Davi and me; we used to do [this] pas de trois. I know that almost like the back of my own hand. Having dancers like Maria, Ben and Lesley was like putting whipped cream on top of an incredible grouping of ice cream. The three of them are wonderful jumpers. They knew I was out there — sometimes they look directly in the camera when I'm at dress rehearsals. That's one of the moments where they say, 'We hope we do it as well as you did it; we saw you on the video.' That's really close to my heart because I danced that role so many times."
![<strong>"Pacific,"</strong> choreographed by Mark Morris, featuring Lucien Postlewaite of Pacific Northwest Ballet<br />
<strong>Sterling</strong>: "I didn't dance a lot of modern, so I had to really watch [Morris'] ballet quite a few times to be able to see the images I wanted to capture from that. The Lucien shot, the reason why I love it — you've got the movement of the leg but the stillness of the body and the sculpted part of his body, you see how defined he is as a male dancer and yet the skirt is flowing and more on that sort of feminine side. I love that image. I've given that as a gift to a number of close friends; they have it on their wall. There's so many different things in it. He's coming down from a jump and that's the finishing moment. I think that's why we got stillness in the shot."](/ABPub/2009/04/01/2008966967.jpg "<strong>\"Pacific,\"</strong> choreographed by Mark Morris, featuring Lucien Postlewaite of Pacific Northwest Ballet<br />
<strong>Sterling</strong>: \"I didn't dance a lot of modern, so I had to really watch [Morris'] ballet quite a few times to be able to see the images I wanted to capture from that. The Lucien shot, the reason why I love it — you've got the movement of the leg but the stillness of the body and the sculpted part of his body, you see how defined he is as a male dancer and yet the skirt is flowing and more on that sort of feminine side. I love that image. I've given that as a gift to a number of close friends; they have it on their wall. There's so many different things in it. He's coming down from a jump and that's the finishing moment. I think that's why we got stillness in the shot.\"")
ANGELA STERLING
"Pacific," choreographed by Mark Morris, featuring Lucien Postlewaite of Pacific Northwest Ballet
Sterling: "I didn't dance a lot of modern, so I had to really watch [Morris'] ballet quite a few times to be able to see the images I wanted to capture from that. The Lucien shot, the reason why I love it — you've got the movement of the leg but the stillness of the body and the sculpted part of his body, you see how defined he is as a male dancer and yet the skirt is flowing and more on that sort of feminine side. I love that image. I've given that as a gift to a number of close friends; they have it on their wall. There's so many different things in it. He's coming down from a jump and that's the finishing moment. I think that's why we got stillness in the shot."
![<strong>"Roméo et Juliette,"</strong> choreographed by Jean-Christophe Maillot. Pictured: Maillot and former Pacific Northwest Ballet dancer Noelani Pantastico<br />
<strong>Sterling</strong>: "Jean-Christophe is a huge influence in my world ... he appreciates my work as much as I appreciate his. He's so visceral and so physical with his dancers, he's always touching them. In that picture, he was telling Lucien [Postlewaite] how [Roméo] is supposed to go up to touch her lips in this way, [thinking] 'I'm afraid I may break her if I touch her too quickly or too passionately.' He was showing, to Lucien, how he would do it with Noe, and her expression there is very much part of that emotional journey that Jean-Christophe took everyone on. It's a very tender, very intense moment."](/ABPub/2009/04/01/2008966977.jpg "<strong>\"Roméo et Juliette,\"</strong> choreographed by Jean-Christophe Maillot. Pictured: Maillot and former Pacific Northwest Ballet dancer Noelani Pantastico<br />
<strong>Sterling</strong>: \"Jean-Christophe is a huge influence in my world ... he appreciates my work as much as I appreciate his. He's so visceral and so physical with his dancers, he's always touching them. In that picture, he was telling Lucien [Postlewaite] how [Roméo] is supposed to go up to touch her lips in this way, [thinking] 'I'm afraid I may break her if I touch her too quickly or too passionately.' He was showing, to Lucien, how he would do it with Noe, and her expression there is very much part of that emotional journey that Jean-Christophe took everyone on. It's a very tender, very intense moment.\"")
ANGELA STERLING
"Roméo et Juliette," choreographed by Jean-Christophe Maillot. Pictured: Maillot and former Pacific Northwest Ballet dancer Noelani Pantastico
Sterling: "Jean-Christophe is a huge influence in my world ... he appreciates my work as much as I appreciate his. He's so visceral and so physical with his dancers, he's always touching them. In that picture, he was telling Lucien [Postlewaite] how [Roméo] is supposed to go up to touch her lips in this way, [thinking] 'I'm afraid I may break her if I touch her too quickly or too passionately.' He was showing, to Lucien, how he would do it with Noe, and her expression there is very much part of that emotional journey that Jean-Christophe took everyone on. It's a very tender, very intense moment."
![<strong>"Symphony in Three Movements,"</strong> choreographed by George Balanchine, with Pacific Northwest Ballet<br />
<strong>Sterling</strong>: "This one [hangs in artistic director] Peter Boal's office. When Peter first came to the company, we sort of had to get to know each other. [For this ballet], he brought me over to the side, and said, 'When the curtain goes up, the girls are in this diagonal, this would make a good shot.' I wanted to impress him and do everything I could do to make him happy. I got that shot, he came up to me, and said, 'Boy, every single shot I asked you to get, you got.' He's never told me how to take a photograph for the company since then! I hadn't really foreseen that the girls all in that line would be really, really striking, but he was right. It helps when you have someone who so recently has been a dancer, like Peter — he still feels it in his body."](/ABPub/2009/04/01/2002516109.jpg "<strong>\"Symphony in Three Movements,\"</strong> choreographed by George Balanchine, with Pacific Northwest Ballet<br />
<strong>Sterling</strong>: \"This one [hangs in artistic director] Peter Boal's office. When Peter first came to the company, we sort of had to get to know each other. [For this ballet], he brought me over to the side, and said, 'When the curtain goes up, the girls are in this diagonal, this would make a good shot.' I wanted to impress him and do everything I could do to make him happy. I got that shot, he came up to me, and said, 'Boy, every single shot I asked you to get, you got.' He's never told me how to take a photograph for the company since then! I hadn't really foreseen that the girls all in that line would be really, really striking, but he was right. It helps when you have someone who so recently has been a dancer, like Peter — he still feels it in his body.\"")
ANGELA STERLING PHOTOGRAPHY / SPECIAL TO THE SEATTLE TIMES
"Symphony in Three Movements," choreographed by George Balanchine, with Pacific Northwest Ballet
Sterling: "This one [hangs in artistic director] Peter Boal's office. When Peter first came to the company, we sort of had to get to know each other. [For this ballet], he brought me over to the side, and said, 'When the curtain goes up, the girls are in this diagonal, this would make a good shot.' I wanted to impress him and do everything I could do to make him happy. I got that shot, he came up to me, and said, 'Boy, every single shot I asked you to get, you got.' He's never told me how to take a photograph for the company since then! I hadn't really foreseen that the girls all in that line would be really, really striking, but he was right. It helps when you have someone who so recently has been a dancer, like Peter — he still feels it in his body."
![<strong>"Voorbij gegaan,"</strong> choreographed by Rudi van Dantzig, featuring the Dutch National Ballet's Anna Tsygankova and former PNB principal Casey Herd<br />
<strong>Sterling</strong>: "Anna is an amazing ballerina — she dances both here [at the Dutch National Ballet] and in Hungary as a guest artist. When she goes up in the air, she's just one with the air. I think that's partially the excitement of the image. The skirt has some movement that way because Casey's actually flying her through the air. She not only jumps, but he's pulling her through the air. I love moments like those. Those are actually the moments, when you're a dancer, you're feeling almost like you're not a part of this world."](/ABPub/2009/04/01/2008967021.jpg "<strong>\"Voorbij gegaan,\"</strong> choreographed by Rudi van Dantzig, featuring the Dutch National Ballet's Anna Tsygankova and former PNB principal Casey Herd<br />
<strong>Sterling</strong>: \"Anna is an amazing ballerina — she dances both here [at the Dutch National Ballet] and in Hungary as a guest artist. When she goes up in the air, she's just one with the air. I think that's partially the excitement of the image. The skirt has some movement that way because Casey's actually flying her through the air. She not only jumps, but he's pulling her through the air. I love moments like those. Those are actually the moments, when you're a dancer, you're feeling almost like you're not a part of this world.\"")
ANGELA STERLING
"Voorbij gegaan," choreographed by Rudi van Dantzig, featuring the Dutch National Ballet's Anna Tsygankova and former PNB principal Casey Herd
Sterling: "Anna is an amazing ballerina — she dances both here [at the Dutch National Ballet] and in Hungary as a guest artist. When she goes up in the air, she's just one with the air. I think that's partially the excitement of the image. The skirt has some movement that way because Casey's actually flying her through the air. She not only jumps, but he's pulling her through the air. I love moments like those. Those are actually the moments, when you're a dancer, you're feeling almost like you're not a part of this world."
ANGELA STERLING
"Swan Lake," choreographed by Kent Stowell, with Pacific Northwest Ballet's Carla Körbes and former PNB dancer Casey Herd; lighting design by Randall G. (Rico) Chiarelli.
Sterling: "We have got such a gift with [lighting designer] Rico Chiarelli. I can't complement him enough. He has made my photographs so much more incredible at PNB. I have a hard time at other companies because they don't have a Rico Chiarelli; they have a lot of muted lighting. He's probably the best lighting designer I've ever worked with. I've known him since I was 16. In 'Swan Lake,' [all the white] can be a challenge, but he makes it so easy. I don't even have to make color adjustments after I've photographed a ballet that he's lit. That's how good he is. "I'm looking forward to going out on a ledge with 'Swan Lake' [this time], trying to get different emotional feelings than just the straight-on typical swan. With Carla and Casey last time, I wanted to get that classical swan shot. I'm hoping this time to move around a lot more, find some really emotional moments."
Angela Sterling
Angela Sterling was born in Boston and trained with Boston Ballet until the age of 15. She joined Pacific Northwest Ballet at age 16 and was promoted to soloist in 1992. Five years later, Sterling suffered a career-ending back injury. She enrolled in Boston's New England School of Photography and has since taken pictures for Seattle's Pacific Northwest Ballet, Boston Ballet, Dutch National Ballet (Amsterdam), Les Ballets de Monte Carlo, Royal Ballet of Flanders (Belgium) and Dresden SemperOper Ballet (Germany)."Swan Lake"
Pacific Northwest Ballet, 7:30 p.m. April 9-11 and 16-18, 1 p.m. April 11 and 18-19, 7 p.m. April 19, McCaw Hall, 321 Mercer St., Seattle; $25-$155 (206-441-2424 or www.pnb.org).Former ballerinas can dance in many ways. Angela Sterling, for example, does it with a camera.
The Boston native performed with Pacific Northwest Ballet for 12 years, retiring in 1997 at the age of 28 with a serious back injury. A counselor at the time asked her if there was anything else she was passionate about. "I said, 'I think, photography,' " said Sterling, who grew up in a camera-mad family and loved taking pictures. She also remembered an encounter with New York City Ballet dancer-turned-photographer Stephen Caras: "He said the only people who should photograph dancers are dancers."
After a stint at the New England School of Photography, Sterling quickly became an in-demand photographer for ballet companies, with clients that include PNB and others, both in the U.S. and abroad. She now lives internationally, based in two apartments (in Seattle and Amsterdam — "I'm never in one place more than the other," she says) and travels constantly.
A typical stint with a company, she says, would be seven days: a few days of watching rehearsals, a few days of shooting dress rehearsals (coupled with late nights working on the images — a quick turnaround made possible by digital cameras), and some networking on opening night. She takes up to 1,400 pictures at a typical dress rehearsal, and might give 300 to 400 "perfect ones" to the client.
Being a former dancer, Sterling says, has been invaluable to her as a photographer. She remembered an interviewer in Monte Carlo noticing that she would click her camera a split second before other photographers. "I said, I actually feel it. I know exactly in my eye and my body, I can tell when the dancer's going to go up for a jump, so it's like my body feels that moment in the air. That's when I click, and usually I hear the clicks of the other photographers a split second later."
Sterling says she's tried to photograph football and basketball, but not knowing where the players are going made her "just miserable at it — it takes a long career for knowing how they move, to figure out what the right timing is." With ballet, she can study the dances beforehand (if she doesn't know them already), and know what positions are coming.
On the telephone from Amsterdam (where she's shooting the Dutch National Ballet, and will soon return to Seattle to photograph "Swan Lake"), Sterling spoke excitedly of the rewards of her second career. She remembered, upon her retirement from PNB, her disappointment at finding very few good photographs of herself in the company archives, and vowed "to give dancers the opportunity to look as good as they strive for weeks and months and years to look on stage.
"The fact that I can get really precise, good positions in the air, or a romantic moment in a ballet, it's really rewarding to me. It's nice that people pay me, but that's not really, truly why I decided to do it."
Moira Macdonald: 206-464-2725 or mmacdonald@seattletimes.com
Copyright © 2009 The Seattle Times Company
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