Hi dancers!

I hope that you’re all holding up OK during this very unusual time. Here in the UK we’re beginning a second week of enforced quarantine, but for most of us we are actually entering the third week.

I’m really glad that just before all of this happened, I had the opportunity to do a photoshoot in the studio. I’ve been really enjoying sharing my Secret London series with you guys, but I wanted something a bit different and I don’t have any recent photos actually in the studio, so I booked one of the studios at university to set up a bit of a photoshoot with Jake (if you’re new here, Jake is my boyfriend a.k.a. live-in professional photographer and his work is frequently featured in my posts!).

We wanted to get creative and play with lighting. We did have some fun with coloured lighting but it proved to be a less than ideal set-up so we didn’t get so many shots with that light. Still, I hope you enjoy this photo gallery as I’m not sure when I’ll have the chance to upload another one!

I’m wearing: blue leotard from Bloch; Short grey skirt from Libertas Atelier; Peach Aurora leotard from Collections by Claudia; Ombré rehearsal skirt in Swan by Cloud and Victory; Bloch tights; Grishko soft ballet shoes; Bloch B-Morph pointe shoes.

Photos by Jake Owens- you can find his website here and his Instagram here.

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I hope that you enjoyed this gallery! My technique still isn’t 100% there as I’m still getting back to my full fitness since my surgery and lengthy time off. Being in the studio and in pointe shoes actually highlighted some areas I need to work on which was helpful for me. But I’m trying to not get too hung up on my technique in every photo, because for me these pictures also capture the joy of moving and being back in the studio doing ballet again. I think we’ll all be feeling that way once quarantine is over and we can get back to training!

I’d really love to hear from you about what kind of content you’d like to see during this time. We are all navigating tricky and completely new waters, having to stay in shape and work from home. If you want to see tips and advice, or any at-home classes, workouts or routines, or anything else specific that would help you during this period please do let me know. I’ve avoided posting home workouts etc. because I feel everyone is doing that so there’s already so much, but if that’s what you want to see, just leave a comment or send me a message.

In the meantime, you can see my advice on how to use this time really wisely to better yourself as a dancer HERE. You can also download your Working From Home planning sheets for dancers HERE, which come with an additional page of tips and tricks on how to effectively work from home as a dancer.

Note that these sheets cost £2.50, because this household relies on freelance income & in this quarantine situation we don’t really have any income. This is a small way in which you can support artists during this time! HOWEVER I do want to support other artists so if you think these sheets would be useful to you but you can’t afford to pay for them at the moment due to the quarantine affecting your income, please email me at jessica@daretodance.co and I will send you a copy for free (unless I think you’re just being a chancer of course haha, but I know my lovely readers wouldn’t do that!)

Stay safe and healthy,

Jessica x