O'Connor, Rosalie 1970-

PERSONAL: Born 1970. Education: Studied ballet beginning at age four; attended School of American Ballet; studied Cecchetti method of ballet under Harvey Hysell and Vincenzo Celli.

ADDRESSES: Home and office—210 Riverside Dr., 11C, New York, NY 10025. E-mail—rosalie@rosalieoconnor.com.

CAREER: American Ballet Company, dancer, 1987-2002; freelance dance photographer; contributor of photographs to periodicals, including Vanity Fair, Garden Design, Time Out, San Francisco Chronicle, New York Observer, New York Times, Elle, Los Angeles Times, and Vogue.

WRITINGS:

Getting Closer: A Dancer's Perspective, University Press of Florida (Gainesville, FL), 2004.

SIDELIGHTS: Herself a retired dancer, Rosalie O'Connor "is rapidly becoming one of the finest dance photographers working today," according to Ballet Alert! Online contributor Alexandra Tomalonis. Recuperating from a foot injury in 1997, O'Connor was able to devote herself to her other great love: photography. As she told Tomalonis, "I had photographed since age six, and in all the cities that [the American Ballet Company] has traveled to, I've always had a camera with me, for my own tourist purposes. Photography is a medium that I love."

O'Connor draws together many of her favorite photographs in Getting Closer: A Dancer's Perspective. In addition to shots of dancers in performance, O'Connor uses her backstage access to capture moments before and after the curtain goes up, revealing the tension, exhilaration, and pain that are often hidden from audiences. "She conveys the inner workings of the dance world—behind the scenes and in performance—with compassion and genuine understanding," commented Elena North-Kelly in Dance magazine.

Like live theatre and music, dance is an extremely ephemeral art, and in capturing these moments, O'Connor provides a record not only of dancers' athletic and artistic achievements but also of the work and emotion that goes into their creation. Also writing in Dance, Wendy Perron commented, "Because O'Connor is a dancer, she can ride with the movement, feel the rhythm, and click at a moment when the action breathes."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, October 1, 2004, Whitney Scott, review of Getting Closer: A Dancer's Perspective, p. 293; November 1, 2004, Donna Seaman, review of Getting Closer, p. 458.

Dance, May, 2001, Wendy Perron, "Rosalie O'Connor: Capturing the Moment," p. 46; October, 2004, Elena North-Kelly, "Seeing Is Believing: Dance in the Eye of the Photographer," p. 66.

ONLINE

Ballet Alert! Web site, http://www.balletalert.com/ (February 10, 2005), Alexandra Tomalonis, interview with O'Connor.

Rosalie O'Connor Home Page, http://www.rosalieoconnor.com (February 10, 2005).