We've all gazed in admiration at pictures of leotard-clad ballerinas on stage or in rehearsal but an interesting US photography project has taken the dancers away from the barre.
The Ballarina Project is a series of photos that capture dancers in typical poses but in very atypical locations, in order to highlight their amazing physicality and strength. The initiative has been ongoing for 14 years and photographer Dane Shitagi told
The Huffington Post that the project "prefers to portray the ballerinas as women and have become an organic piece of their environment."
"Over the years we have had feedback from our women followers that the project is empowering. However it is much more common that we have received feedback from dancers of all ages as being very inspiring," he said.
You can check out the project's Facebook page
here but see below for a selection of our favourites.
