When not rehearsing, you can find him propped on the floor of the studios, Nikon in hand, snapping fun candids of company dancers and capturing striking poses mid-choreography.
Principal dancer Arian Molina Soca is a self-taught photographer that believe it or not, only discovered his love of photography in 2016. With daily practice and the help of online tutorials, he harnessed this newfound talent quickly and just one year later became the master behind many of the images featured by Philadelphia Ballet.
“The hardest thing to learn was the contrast of the lights.” The entire mood of a photo can be altered with just a simple change in lighting, resulting in intimate backstage photos and an unexpected peer into the everyday life of a company dancer.
Arian also enjoys shooting outside and spends his time scouting the streets for an eye-catching location for a dancer, or adventurously capturing cities and scenic landscapes on his travels.
He doesn’t look for a picture-perfect element within the dancers he shoots, instead believing in the beauty in variety and embodying each dancer’s special qualities in a single frame. When asked what his favorite photos are, he shared the following shots of fiancé and fellow Principal Dayesi Torriente backstage during Giselle.
“What I love most about photography is capturing beautiful moments that we can remember forever.”
And that is something that we can appreciate at Philadelphia Ballet.
