Michella Bredahl’s playful portraits of women pole dancing at home

Danish photographer and filmmaker Michella Bredahl has a gift for creating portraits of people ensconced in their own private worlds. The way she shoots is an extension of how she sees and experiences people – and that’s with warmth and sensitivity. Accumulated over 11 years, her 2023 book Love Me Again presented a collection of tender photographs of friends, family and loved ones shot in their immediate environments. Her latest photo book – a collaboration with renowned stylist Lotta Volkova – was shot much more rapidly, over just two days in Paris, but shares the intimate feeling that made Bredahl’s previous monograph so special.

everyth!ng 001 (the inaugural edition of creative director Bruce Usher’s new imprint, everyth!ng) is a series of portraits of pole dancers in Paris, shot by Bredahl in their homes and studios and styled by Volkova wearing a mixture of their own clothes and Miu Miu’s AW24 collection. The dancers are compellingly suspended, elegant and statuesque on the pole amid the everyday detritus of their homes – rails of clothing, electric fans, books, plants, et cetera. One dancer wearing impossibly high heels spans her sofa in the splits while our eye is caught by disarming details – the TV remote, the mess of electric cables, the Pleaser shoe boxes. Another dancer is captured contorting around the pole wearing dominatrix-style lace-up thigh boots and vinyl gloves paired with utilitarian blue trousers and shirt co-ord. In the background, we glimpse an easel and painting materials and we’re drawn to wonder about her other artistic practices.

The portraits are riddled with interesting incongruities that challenge our expectations of pole dancers. The private spaces seem at odds with the dominant associations of pole dancing as a spectacle and a performance; the domestic, sometimes chaotic, environments contrast with the elegance of the dancers’ poses. The clothes also defy expectations in interesting ways – not only because pole dancing has incorrectly become entwined exclusively with the idea of striptease, but also because Volkova’s ensembles would presumably inhibit the skin-to-pole friction required to keep airborne.

For Bredahl, who herself practices the art of pole dancing and has many friends who dance, dancing here is shown as a form of self-expression rather than something performative for the consumption of an audience. “I feel like my portraits perhaps divert the imagination in other directions,” she tells Dazed, “because they depict the different spaces people pole dance.”

Below, we talk with Michella Bredahl about her relationship with dancing, her sensitive approach to portraiture and the guiding principles behind everyth!ng 001.

Please can you tell us about your relationship with pole dancing?

Michella Bredahl: Dancing at large is an art form that truly touches me. I became interested in pole dancing many years ago through a pole dancer. She took me to Pink School in Copenhagen. I started taking my first lessons there and felt, ‘Wow, what is this?’ It’s the wildest feeling.

So I started photographing pole dancers in exchange for pole lessons. It was very immediate – I had a camera, they wanted some pictures, I wanted to learn pole. My short film Chassé also documented a group of dancers – aerial dancers, pole dancers, et cetera. The film was about how they liberated themselves through dance, so I think it still touches that chord for me; that feeling of liberation. It’s maybe the one other place I feel I would belong if I weren’t photographing or making films.

As a photographer, what do you find compelling about pole dancers?

Michella Bredahl: I love photographing my life, people – especially my friends and artists – and I think that kind of led me to photographing pole dancers because a lot of my friends are professional pole dancers and it’s also an art form and a form of expression.

My life is quite intertwined with my photography. When you take photos, it’s exciting to be surprised or inspired. Pole dancing awakens a lot of joy in me. It’s a powerful medium for self-expression, strength, and grace. To see someone so in control and in motion, it’s very beautiful and strong. I like photographing women as well. These women managed to make it look so effortless and graceful. They’re all extremely strong, they are all very talented artists.

Please could you tell us about the decision to take portraits of dancers in their homes rather than the traditional club environment? 

Michella Bredahl: Clubs are not the only traditional environments. Pole dancing in clubs refers to its Western origins, but there are many different styles of pole and places you can pole. Pole dancing at home is very common today. My work centres around the home, so it made sense to focus on pole dancing at home for this series of pictures.

To what extent did the dancers collaborate in their portraits?

Michella Bredahl: It was very different for each girl, but we all collaborated with them. Since we were shooting most of them in their homes, there was a lot to decide on before each shoot, which they helped to put in place. In terms of poses, they also had ideas for what to try out. It was an experiment, so they played a big part in coming up with ideas. There were many poses they couldn’t do because of the clothes and the fact that they didn’t have grip, so we had to come up with other ways to do it the poses.

Having worked as a model, can you tell us how this experience of being looked at has informed this series in particular? 

Michella Bredahl: I worked as a model when I was very young – I started at 14 years old. I stopped doing it because I wanted to be able to create my own images rather than stepping into other people’s universes. But I think it’s fun to be in front of a camera and have people’s eyes on you. It can be a truly beautiful experience to be photographed by someone who truly sees you. It’s great to see yourself in a completely different or unexpected way. I love to collaborate with other creative people. 

I still today say yes to [modelling] projects that make sense to me and where I have a voice within it. When I photograph, I want it to be a good experience for everyone, so I try to listen and be attentive to the wishes and needs of the person I’m photographing. They enter my universe, so I think the least I can do is make sure they feel seen and appreciated. I also think it’s great to bring people together and share things. A book is a great opportunity for that. 

everyth!ng 001 by Michella Bredahl and Lotta Volkova is published by everyth!ng, and is out now.