those who didn’t take off their red shoes
The reason I wanted to shoot this series was — during my ballet class, I felt something in my heart, an emotion almost made me cry, and the place itself felt so beautiful to me. The people there felt like comrades, connected by this thing called ballet — I felt dearness.
Even now, I still feel this quite often. And from the question of “what am I so moved by?”, and the simple wish to photograph this beautiful thing — that’s where it started.
Something I had been thinking about for a while, I finally began shooting this spring, 2026.
And the story behind choosing the title red shoes (those who didn’t take off their red shoes) — at first it was just instinct, I thought, this is a red shoes series. But when I went back and reread that fairy tale properly, I found it’s actually quite grotesque, and for a moment I gave up on the title. But in the end — ah, these people, they are the ones who didn’t take off their red shoes, and that’s what I was drawn to. That’s how I arrived at this title.
And as I keep shooting this, it has been helping me to look at some wounds I’ve had since childhood.
I wrote, as a child, that I would become a photographer — or somewhere in me I always thought so — but I also wanted to become a ballerina. I think I started ballet around age 10, which isn’t early, for someone doing ballet. Next door there was a beautiful older girl who was very good at ballet, and from going to see her recitals, I begged to dance too — and then let me start. Eventually her house became a ballet studio, so I had the good fortune of just going next door for lessons. Photography and ballet, both started in childhood, both still continuing until now — if I say it like that, it sounds like I have strong will, or some amazing power of commitment. But it’s really not like that at all. I wanted to do this and that, cheated on many things along the way, but what remained — the main wife, and the, what do you call it, the kept woman? Ha — those two were ballet and photography. Honestly, like what I wrote before about my obsession with Betty Blue — the movie I kept watching over and over no matter what, its title was 37.2°, a bit of a low fever, a warm feeling — but opposite to that, my passion has rarely burned. It feels more like it’s simply, always, just there. This past year, in which I’ve been reexamining my own passion, my drive to create, and trying to reignite something that was almost going out — these three, who I see as somehow similar to myself, and yet, from where I stand, someone with such incredible commitment, who kept holding onto their passion — honestly, part of me wondered, why ballet, on Kauai?? But for me, someone who has always felt like I don’t quite fit into this island, always with this outsider feeling — they had made, without knowing it, a kind of place that felt, for the first time, like somewhere I belonged. They are amazing people.
Photographing these three ballet teachers — that’s how this series began.
赤い靴を脱がなかった人たち
このシリーズを撮りたい、と思ったきっかけは 私が行くバレエのクラスの最中に 涙が出るような 感情が込み上げてくるのを感じ その場がものすごく美しく思え、そこにいる人たちが バレエ、というもので繋がった同志、のような？ 何か愛おしいような感覚を覚えた。それは 今でもバレエに行くたびに度々感じるもので 私は何にこんなに感動してるんだろう？という疑問と この美しいものを撮りたい、という単純な想いから。
随分前から考えていたものを 今年２０２６年の春から撮り始めた。
そして red shoes（赤い靴を脱がなかった人たち）というタイトルにしようとした経緯は まず直感で、赤い靴シリーズだ、と思ったんだけど よくその童話を読み返してみると かなりグロい、と感じる内容で で一旦やめてもみたものの 結局 ああ、この人たちは赤い靴を脱がなかった人たちで そこに私は惹かれてたんだ、ということから このタイトルになった。
そしてこれを撮り進めていく中で 自分の子供の頃からの傷を見つめる手助けになってきている。
私は写真家になる、と子供の頃に書いてたり どこかでそう思いながらも バレリーナにもなりたかった。バレエを始めたのは１０歳くらいだったか？バレエをする子にとっては早い方ではない。隣の綺麗なお姉ちゃんがバレエがすごく上手な人で 発表会を見に行くうちに 自分も踊りたい！とねだって始めさせてもらって そのうち そのお姉ちゃんの家がバレエスタジオになったんで 隣にレッスンを受けに行く、という好条件になった。写真もバレエも子供の時に初めて 今でもずっとやってきた、というと 意志が強い、というか なんかすごいコミット力がある人、な感じがするけど 全くそうでもなく かなりあれもこれもやりたい、で散々浮気しながら でも残った本妻と囲い妻？とかいうのか？笑 その２つがバレエと写真だった。正直、一個前に書いたベティーブルーへの執着というか 何度もどうしても繰り返し見てしまった映画のタイトルが３７.２度 ちょっと微熱っぽい熱い感じ、とは反対に 私の情熱は燃えることがあまりなく ただ単にずっとそこにある、そんな気すらする。自分のパッション、創作への意欲、を見直してたり 消えかけてたものをもう一度奮い立たせていたようなこの一年の中 自分とどこか似てるようであり 私からみるとすごいコミットして情熱を持ち続け なんでカウアイでバレエ？？と正直どこかで思ったけど どこかこの島に馴染みきれない感、アウトサイダー感でずっといる私にとっては 初めて感じた居場所のような そういう 場 を作ってくれてる すごい人たちだった。
そんな３人のバレエの先生達を撮ったのが このシリーズの始まり。
