\Today, my teammates, Michelle, Meryl and I braved the slightly snowy city and went to the Pacific Northwest Ballet studios to see Olivier Wever at work. For the photo essay class (the assignment’s theme, the Creative Life), we decided to tell the story of Olivier, a Belgian art director of his dance company Whim W’him.

Watching him work, we all got the impression that he was a fair, accessible artistic sort and the interview coming up in a week should go well. His musical choices are inspirational and his dance style unique and very passionate. Today’s session was somewhat technical, Olivier telling his dancers how they should melt from one position to another and how connected they should be as they chased each other around the studio. I liked all the nicknames for the dance gestures. There’s one called “ugly hands” where Olivier instructed a dancer to motion like she was picking up rocks. Meryl lent me one of her extra cameras to take photographs and it felt very different than my normal artistic pursuits. I had to anticipate before pressing the trigger because often, by the time you see something marvelous, it’s already too late.