Frequently Asked Question

Great question! We take the health and safety of our clients and our staff very seriously! You can find a detailed list of our Covid related poicies and procedures here.

Rachel and Andrew are both classically trained dancers, and dance teachers. Rachel has developed her proprietary method of shooting dancers over the last 20 years. Here at Rachel Neville Studios, we promise that the integrity of your dance technique will be showcased accurately in your photos.

Using our extremely fine tuned workflow, specialized lighting techniques, coupled with our strategies of accurately displaying the 3D movement of dance into the 2D space of an image, we guarantee you will be pleasantly surprised with how amazing you can look in a photograph after utilizing our methods!

Rachel trained and danced in Canada, USA, and Europe. Andrew, who shoots all of our audition photos, spent nearly a decade as a professional dancer with Tulsa Ballet. He knows the ins and outs of the audition process, and how trying of a time it can be! They know where you're at, and they know what you're going through and they know how to get you the help that you need!

Our clients have a 70-80% success rate in scoring the audition when they use our audition photos. That number rises to 90% when they submit both audition and creative shots that we create to show off the dancers at their most magical!

Take a deep breath... let your shoulders drop away from your ears... and relax! You are not alone in that concern! The majority of dancers that walk in our door say that at the beginning of their shoots, and always leave thrilled with their images saying "oh my gosh, I didn't know I could look like that!".  You can read more about our proprietary method of translating the 3D movement of dance into the 2D space of an image or print HERE

Rachel and Andrew are both former professional dancers and are well versed in Vaganova, RAD, Balanchine, English, and French pedagogical training methodologies. We've got you covered!

We usually tell our clients to bring literally everything! It is not uncommon for dancers to show up with a suitcase full of leotards and styling! It is always better to have too many options than not enough!

Sometimes your favorite leotard to wear may not be the best leotard to wear for a particular shot. One leotard may look excellent in an arabesque, but may not be the most flattering option for a passé.

You can download our latest leotard guide here.

Our schedule usually fills up about 6-8 weeks in advance.

We shoot audition photos on weekdays and reserve the weekends for creative and Social Media Power program photoshoots.

Great question! We're more than happy to send over some pricing information to you.  Each dancer's needs are unique, and thus we like to ask a few questions so we can match you with the shoot that will best fit your needs.

Are you auditioning for schools or companies? Are you a classical, contemporary, or commercial dancer? Photos to celebrate a special event? Are you interested in supplementing your creative portfolio or growing your social media presence?

At our studio we do more than just provide beautiful imagery.  Having been professional dancers, teachers, coaches, and photographers for over 30 years, we have quite literally been in the dancer’s shoes - and know exactly what one needs to succeed and get to the next level.  Many of the top dance companies in the country have reached out to us create imagery, and for consulting as well - we know what the dance world needs.

We have worked with literally thousands of dancers who fly to us from all over the world, and we treat each and every one of them as if they were our own student.  Our photography studio is custom designed for the unique and specific needs that dance photography requires.  We were the first people in the world to build a custom sprung floor into a photography cyclorama, thus ensuring the safety of the dancer and providing them a familiar surface on which to dance.  

Through our proprietary methods of shooting dancers - we have developed foolproof structures of ensuring that dancers look amazing in their images, taking into consideration their personal body shapes, strengths and weaknesses, and their target goals.  This is what we do day in and day out - we have dedicated our lives to helping dancers achieve their goals - and we are good at it.

We work with some of the most awesome hair and makeup artists in New York City! We have an amazing team of hair and makeup artists that have been working with us for years. Having pristine hair and makeup helps you to feel like your most authentically beautiful and un-photoshopped self, and adds a unique level of polish to your images that really helps them pop!

About 2 weeks after your shoot you will receive a private password protected proofing gallery. This gallery shows the majority of your images from the shoot (we remove outtakes, or images where you were perhaps blinking, or unflattering poses) in low res format so that you can quickly scroll through the images to select which images you would like to finalize.

Once you have submitted your selects, your images will immediately be entered into our retouching queue. You can expect to receive your final images approximately 2-3 weeks after you've submitted your selects.

We deliver all final images in high and low resolution in private, password protected online galleries. If you're interested in high quality archival fine art prints, we do offer that as well - just send us an email!

All of our images go through a finely tuned quality control and post production process. On every single image we color correct, select the most flattering crop, clean up any skin imperfections or blemishes, and fix any distracting elements in styling, props, background, etc.

In your images, it is of the utmost importance that you look like YOU. It does you a disservice if you show up to an audition not looking like you do in your images. We do not change or alter dancer's bodies in images. We will not change your leg shapes. We will not make your feet look like Sylvie Guillem's.

We use our proprietary posing and lighting techniques to ensure that your body and dance technique are displayed in the fullest integrity in your images straight out of the camera, before any post production has happened.  With these methods, we have a plethora of lighting and posing tools to help highlight your best assets, while drawing the attention away from anything you may be insecure about.

Our studio is located 4 subway stop from Times Square in Long Island City Queens at 25-19 Borden Avenue, Suite 216.

We require a 30% non refundable booking fee to reserve your shoot date. The final balance is due the day before the scheduled photoshoot.

With at least 30 days notice your deposit is transferable to a shoot within a 12 month window of the original shoot date.

Don’t worry if you have to change your date for any travel/illness/injury/covid/etc issues.  We only take up to 10 shoots per month.  Once you’re in, you’re in.  If you have to reschedule, no worries - you’re on our calendar, and we have the flexibility to move you to a different date.

If a cancellation occurs under force majeure related consequences we will reschedule your session free of charge. If you choose not to reschedule your shoot, any deposit/booking fees are forfeited.