Megumi Yuzuki / 柚月恵 - Pole Dancer

Ilko Allexandroff (a.k.a. sir_sky) has added a photo to the pool:

Here is the whole article about the shoot on my Website! Check it out!

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Strobist info:
Canon 580EXII in 80x60 Gridded Softbox - Camera Left-Back;
Nikon SB-26 in 90x20 Gridded Softbox - Camera Right-Back;
Nikon SB-26 with a snoot to trigger the background Nikon SB-26 (I had no more PWs available)
Nikon SB-26 with a blue gel pointed at the wall for the blue background;
The softbox flashes are triggered Phottix Atlas trigger on the camera;
The other two SB-26 flashes are triggered by Optical slave

Pole Dancer: Megumi Yuzuki / 柚月恵

Couple of months ago I had this assignment to take some profile photos of a pole dancer, this was the first time for me to shoot someone doing this type of dance, and we did some very interesting stuff together. Her name is Megumi Yuzuki / 柚月恵, and she is one of the best pole dancers in Japan, she is very professional and also very easy to work with. We have also done some other shoots after this one, but the result from them I will upload later! In this article I will explain the strobist setup of the edgy lighting I've been using for her, and you can see some of the photos below!

Here is the whole article about the shoot on my Website! Check it out! Here I will mention just a little about it. In this shoot after a talk with my model, trying to analyze her I decided to go with some edgy lighting, thus putting some emphasize on her beautiful body lines. So I decided to use my strip lights from both sides diagonally and shoot without any light from the front side. I think this really created some images that show in a really good way her body structure. Then after some shots with only the strip lights, I thought to put some life into the background, so here came the flash gels, on this shoot I used blue and purple, as you will see on the shots I've uploaded down in the article! And after setting that, it was just about to shoot, she was now posing that much as she was just doing it the way when she is dancing, so I didn't have to tell her a lot what to do!

So, what is actually the pole dance? Well, maybe from the influence of the Hollywood movies, but the pole dance still has the reputation of strippers in the night club. Actually it is getting popular as an excercise and something to learn, also it　is gving you the oppurtunity to practice and enjoy spins, acrobatics, floor movement and others tricky things! She is teaching students from 16 to 60 years of age, so you can do pole dance no matter what age you are, and no matter what job you are doing! Megumi is organizing a party called PDN. It has a different theme every time, for example doing collaboration with salsa and samba dancers, capoeira, or even jazz and and other types of live music combined with pole dancing to create an interesting show, and deliver their concept. Approximately 20 dancers perform on each show, and they dance until late in the night. Pole dance is a way for every woman to polish herself as a beautiful woman in a healthy way. You don't need to look like a celebrity or have amazing acrobat skills of an olympic player to do pole dance, it can be practiced by everyone no matter of social status and age!

では、ちょっと日本語で説明も入れますね！

ポールダンスはポールを使い、スピン、アクロバット、フロアムーブなどで楽しむダンスです。ストリッパーや映画のクラブシーンなどのイメージが強いですが、今はエクササイズや習い事として、広がっています。私は現在16歳から60歳の生徒を指導しています。そして、PDNというポールダンスを中心したパーティーをオーガナイズしています。PDNには毎回テーマがあり、サンバやカポエラジャズダンス、サルサ、生演奏など、ポールダンスだけではなく、いろんなジャンルとコラボレーションしたり、ミュージカルのような演出をしたり、世界観とメッセージ性をとても大切にしています。毎回約20名のダンサーたちが出演し、終電まで盛り上がっています。ポールダンスを健全なアートとして、女性らしさを磨くエクササイズとして、どんな職業や年齢の人にでも楽しんでもらいたい、ダンスは恵まれた容姿や、ずば抜けた身体能力のある人のものだけではなく、一生懸命がんばってステージデビューを目指したり、自分の個性や、伝えたいメッセージを探しながら、仲間とともに奮闘し、少しずつ変わっていく生徒たちとともに日々成長するのは私の喜びです！

Megumi Yuzuki / 柚月恵プロフィール

幼少よりクラシックバレエを習い、ダンス歴30年 国立大学ダンス部の非常勤講師を15年、フラメンコなどを習い、ストリートダンスのインストラクターを経て、現在はポールダンスのインストラクターと、ダンスアーティストグループ、烏來KYOTO代表、柚來激龍波代表、マネージングをこなすマルチタレンテッドなダンスアーティスト。

2008年ブラジルに渡る。

二十歳以降から海外でのダンスショウケースを数々こなし テレビ出演、雑誌掲載、様々なクラブイベントへの出演や 舞台、企業のパーティーなどで活躍。1999年に烏來KYOTOを立ちあげる。烏來KYOTOは毎年、海外ツアーへ参加し、国内外のVIPアーティストらと共演をし続け 毎月様々なパーティーに出演。東京ではWOMBやageHaに出演、地方でのショウもこなす。フリーランスのダンスグループとしては稀な安定感で、毎月出演依頼が絶えない。

Here is the whole article about the shoot on my Website! Check it out!