To experience life through the eyes of a dancer is a rare treat. Wendy Whelan’s photography exhibition encompasses uncommon sights and vantage points that will be entirely new to most viewers. Using the mobile platform Instagram (@WendyW), Ms. Whelan captures moments from the secret side of the dance world not usually revealed to the public from her own unique perspective. The images within this exhibition were initially the inspiration for a larger gallery of photography taken by Ms. Whelan as well as a number of other well-known dancers in the field. The original exhibition of dancer photography, Shooting Stars, which was on view at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Blake’s Barn during the summer of 2013 was curated by Norton Owen, Jacob’s Pillow’s Director of Preservation. As she continues to develop her creative eye for photography, Wendy Whelan shares her artistry on a day-to-day basis with her 17,000+ followers on Instagram.

“I like to show the secret side of our world that people don’t usually get to see. I fell in-love with dance when I could see the inside workings of it… the backstage. I find, being a dancer, all of the work and your creativity and your focus goes to a product that in the end disappears; and by taking a photograph, you get to keep it.” – Wendy Whelan