Confession: I was never interested in dance. Unfortunately, dance is not so much a part of our pop-culture. It is more difficult to appreciate (for me) than music or visual arts, and as busy individuals, we usually turn to easier-to-digest forms of art for our entertainment. Which is also a nice way to say I’m lazy and like to watch tv. But the dance world is filled with many beautiful works and skilled artists. We just don’t hear about them as often as we hear about Brangelina (did I spell that correctly?).

Well, social media to the rescue. Bringing people closer together (even I am on Facebook) and artists closer to their fans. Meet Daniil Simkin, international ballet star, currently a soloist for ABT. He has 5000 friends on Facebook and over 5000 fans.

Back in December, I was asked by Ha’aretz (top Israeli daily) to photograph Daniil for an article. His humble demeanor completely took me by surprise. His connection with his fans and popularity on youtube may help bring the Ballet closer to ordinary lazy people like me:)

Check out Daniil in action here – It’s an old clip but is very telling of this ballet star’s upbringing. More about him here. Besides the usual NYC security guard in our way (“your lens is too big to be here”) we had a great time and Daniil was very easy to photograph.

Here are some of the outtakes from our session: