NYC Dance Project was created by Ken Browar and Deborah Ory. They
have created the project to showcase the wonderful world of dance and dancers,
centered in New York City.
Their work has been featured in many magazines including Harper's
Bazaar, Italian Vogue, L'Uomo Vogue and Glamour, and on many
websites including Today.com, Elle.com, USA Today.com, Huffington Post,
Hasselblad and many others. Their book, The Art of Movement, was
published on October 25, 2016 and won an International Photography Award for
best book.
These unique and beautiful portraits of the dance community not
only showcase the graceful elegance of the dancers, but they also highlight the
femininity and lightness of the dresses the dancers wear.
So when the NYC Dance Project approached us with a collaboration in
mind, we were delighted to send them Tony Ward dresses from the Couture and RTW
collections, and we impatiently waited for the results. As you can see in the
pictures, we were far from being disappointed!
The beautiful dancer Sterling Hyltin, a Principal with New York
City Ballet was able, through her dance to to bring our dresses to life, while
Ken and Deborah were able to capture her movements in a mesmerizing and
unprecedented manner.
Interview with Deborah Ory
How did the idea of NYC Dance Project come to you?
I started NYC Dance Project with my husband, Ken
Browar. I had been a dancer growing up and had always loved
dance.Ken and I were both working as commercial photographers shooting
fashion and celebrities. We really wanted to work on a personal project
together. Both of our teenage daughters were studying dance at the
American Ballet Theatre school. They wanted photographs of the dancers from
American Ballet Theatre that they admired to put up in their rooms.To our
surprise, there were very few beautiful images of these dancers, so we decided
we should photograph them ourselves.We reached out to one of the principal
dancers and shortly after, we were photographing most of the company! It was
not long before the project took off. Now we have a book of our work, have
done several gallery shows and are currently working on a 2nd book.
What attracted you most in the Tony Ward dresses you chose?
I was very attracted to the Tony Ward dresses because of their
femininity, elegance and timeless style.The details on these dresses were
just incredible and the dancer was able to move beautifully in them.
Describe the connection you observe between dancing and fashion.
It’s really wonderful to work with dancers because they can
take fashion to places you don’t usually get to envision when working with a
model. Dancers are able to make the garments come to life and the movement
brings out shape, form and texture in the clothing.