On the year of 70th anniversary of Vanemuine Ballet the theater gave people a beautiful gift – open air ballet gala with stars up in the sky and on stage.

I was already involved in the 70th anniversary of the Vanemuine Ballet Theater with some of my photos being published in the year book (Published in the book) and was very excited to be taking photos of my friends and other amazing dancers again.

I don’t think I would have motivation to go and keep taking the photos of the performances if there weren’t the gratitude, appreciation and good words of the dancers who are always excited to see the photos and share with their families.

Nikolaus Fotiadis (first soloist of the Royal Swedish Ballet) and Anna Valev (principal dancer of the Royal Swedish Ballet) in Passion. I am very honored by their personal approvals for publishing their photos.

I seemed to be only photographer at the rehearsal, but as was expected, there were a lot of people taking photos at the gala night. There were at least four DSLR cameras close to the spot where I was taking photos and I was sorry for the visitors who had to put up with the ongoing snapping sounds of the cameras. Considering the numerous photographers I was expecting full page newspaper stories with photos in the first papers of the next week, but disappointedly found only one photo in one of them with few lines about the gala: “..about 8000 people at the gala, ..majestic show.”

It was definitely worth more than that.

I was jokingly called official theater few years ago. But now, when a person from theater expressed gratitude for me as understanding and loving personal photographer of the ballet team, I got my eyes wet for a moment.

Vanemuine Ballet gala was held at Tartu Song Festival arena on August 22nd.

Naively, I was only wearing a  T-shirt when taking photos at the rehearsal the night before real gala. Although the day had been beautiful and sunny I ended up freezing as the rehearsal ran late into the night. Thanks to dancers who saw me ridiculously under-dressed and helped me with a blanket and warm coffee.

My sincere thanks to Mare Tommingas – the director and designer of the gala, Vanemuine Ballet Director – for allowing me to take these and all the photos before, and for approving them for publishing on my blog.