A Quick Q&A with Kelly and Ian from Dancers and Dogs

Kelly and Ian are two professional photographers whose love for dogs has led them to create one of the most unique, beautiful and interesting projects on the Internet. Dancers and Dogs is a pictorial collection that has one simple goal: photograph 100 dancers & 100 dogs across the United States. Learn more about this project and these two talented, dog-loving photographers in this exclusive Q&A for Border Collie Fan Club members!

Tell us a little bit about yourself? Who are you and what do you do?

We are Kelly Pratt Kreidich and Ian Kreidich. We are married photographers, based in St. Louis, MO, and we specialize in commercial photography.

Tell us about Dancers & Dogs?

Dancers & Dogs is a fun project, combining the beautiful lines and artistry of professional dancers, with the fun-loving, goofiness of dogs. We want to show the lighter side of the dance world, which is often seen as serious, moody and dark.

How did this project come about? What was your idea/inspiration for it?

We are the photographers for the St Louis Ballet, and we’ve also worked with dancer across the U.S., and in Cuba. We started out with one dancer form the St. Louis Ballet, and one dog, just to see if this idea would even work. People really enjoyed those first images, so we continued the series with more dancers.

What’s it like having dancers and dogs work together? What are some of the challenges?

Dance photography is difficult enough in itself, so adding dogs into the mix makes for a tricky shoot. That’s why we work with professional dancers for this project, because we like to know that the dancers will be able to do what we need from them. The biggest challenge is getting dogs to do what you want them to do. Dogs are like toddlers, and even the best-trained dogs have off days. We work with dogs from all different training levels and backgrounds. Some a very well-trained and know lots of behaviors but most of the dogs included have been your average pet. But we always laugh a lot on set. Some great shots come out of dogs just being dogs.

What has been your favourite dog to work with (hint: was it a border collie?) 🙂

It’s hard to have one favorite. There are so many great ones! The border collies are always fun because they are so smart and athletic.

Can you tell us a bit about the border collies that have been featured in a few of your shoots?

We have had a few border collies in the project. First, our dog, Dillon, who is a border collie mix. Then there was a border collie, named Snip, who does obedience trials. He was paired with a younger dancer, names Hannah Webb. Then there were all four of the Super Collies – Hero, Marvel, Loki and Thor, owned and trained by Sara Carson. They were on last season on America’s Got Talent.

What was it like working with such well-trained Border Collies like the Super Collies?

Hero and all of his siblings are such impressive dogs! We were able to do some shots and poses with them that we’ve been wanting to do for a while, we were just waiting for the right dogs. Having trained dog on set obviously makes things easier for us, and allows us to think of more creative and difficult shots. Sara has done such an amazing job training them in a positive and fun way.

How can people find out more and support your project?

We just updated our website! You can find out more about Dancers & Dogs at www.dancersanddogs.com. You can also find us on Facebook and Instagram @dancersanddogs. If people would like to see the project continue, and help us bring Dancers & Dogs to more cities, they can purchase shirts, prints and more from our website. We are releasing a 2019 calendar this fall as well!

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