Svetlana Zakharova

The Connecticut Dance Alliance recently published Connecticut Dances Compendium, a collection of dance writing created to help one experience many aspects of Connecticut’s dance history through personal stories, memories, reviews and essays, and will be a treasury of history for generations to come.

Beginning on page 348 is an article written by Barbara Ferreri Malinksy titled  “Gene Schiavone: Photographer to the Acrobats of God.”

Excerpts:

Gene Schiavone communes with the Acrobats of God on a daily basis. His camera captures their essence – their artistry where the human body is the instrument of expression. Imbued with the subtle nuance that each performer proffers, the Acrobats of God bestow the gift of transcendence, transporting us from this world to another.

His skill is in demand throughout the world and has taken him to the most prestigious ballet companies and festivals – ABT, New York City Ballet, Boston Ballet, Bolshoi, Kirov, Munich Ballet, Royal Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, the Mikkeli Ballet Festival in Finland, the Youth American Grand Prix as well as other companies and international events. His photographs are published regularly in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and major papers and magazines here and abroad.

Mention just about any etoile in the constellation of ballet stardom and he has photographed them – Paloma Herrera, Ulyana Lopatkina, Alessandra Ferri, Marcelo Gomes, Diana Vishneva, Ethan Stiefel, Gillian Murphy, Roberto Bolle, Irina Dvorovenko, Anastasia and Denis Matvienko, Nina Ananiashvili, Svetlana Zakharova and more. He lives in the firmament of the stars and understands the ephemeral and evanescent nature of his subject matter.

His philosophy reveals his understanding of documenting a transient medium, “Each photograph is a moment in time which has immediately become the past. Ballet is a visual art form steeped in history. It is my hope that these photographs will help preserve that history.”