Lethbridge Weddings & Portrait Photography by Tanya Plonka

After one year off, Ammena Dance Company is back!

It was so fun to return to poster design brainstorming with her. With a number of Beyonce songs in the show this year, we were inspired by both a classic European feel as well as the aesthetics from the music video for Formation. Donning a very Beyonce-inspired wide brimmed hat that will be used in one of the pieces, we explored downtown Lethbridge around her new studio location. We were very generously given access to a private property that made it onto the final poster, and had been exactly the feel we were going for.

This year’s show will feature Bollywood, tango, bellydance, burlesque, The Greatest Showman, Footloose and more, so please come check it out! There will be lots of themes of starting anew :)

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This year’s showing of An Explosion of World Dance and Music by Ammena Dance Company will be a bittersweet event. Along with all of the love and energy that goes into creating this show, we will be paying our respects as it is the last show ever. Ammena is starting a new chapter in her life and closing her dance studio this spring. Some of us have been with her for 12 years so this really marks the end of an era!

The 2017 poster is based on one of the cutest pieces this year, Jetset, which features sparkly blue flight attendant outfits. Ammena used her connections to get us access to an airplane and once there, the poster photos quickly turned into an aviation themed pinup photoshoot because it was just so much fun! We also chose this theme as it reflects Ammena jetting off to her next adventure in life.

This year’s show will feature Bollywood, Broadway, African, Soca, contemporary, burlesque and more, so please come check it out!

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Ammena Dance Company’s “An Explosion of World Dance and Music” 2016 is coming soon! Tickets will be on sale on February 2nd at the Yates Memorial Centre in Lethbridge and this year we are doing two shows again: Friday March 4th and Saturday March 5th!

This is a very theatrical year for the show as we feature a reoccurring character throughout the pieces, have a few numbers bigger than ever, and open the show with a fun circus themed piece. This year’s show really centred around the circus so we did the poster photos earlier this year to make use of the Whoop Up Days fair in August. Ammena Talhami was quite the spectacle at the fair grounds in her costume, though I’m shocked we had no photo bombers ;)

This year’s show will feature Can Can, Bollywood, bellydance, African, Dancehall, funk, jazz, and more, including the special circus themed piece so please come check it out! The show will also be starting a little earlier this year as we do our first preshow, continuing the circus theme.

Model, Wardrobe: Ammena Talhami
Makeup and Hair: Jennifer Murray
Concept, photography, design: Tanya Plonka

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Ammena Dance Company’s “An Explosion of World Dance and Music” 2015 is coming soon! Tickets will be on sale on February 3rd at the Yates Memorial Centre in Lethbridge and this year we are doing two shows again: Friday March 6th and Saturday March 7th!

We have a lot of black and red costumes in the show this year, including our awesome broadway tango finale piece, so it was important to get those colors into the poster. Plus, after saying we wouldn’t have a lot of props to dance with this year, Ammena Talhami brought in all kinds of goodies for us! Candles will be a big part of the show, so we covered the floor with them (which were much easier to clean up than rose petals!).

Because the setup wasn’t as complicated as last year, we got to sneak in a few extra non-poster photos as well :)

This year’s show will feature bellydance, Bollywood, dancehall, burlesque, tango, broadway, and more, so please come check it out!

Model, Wardrobe: Ammena Talhami
Makeup and Hair: Ammena Talhami
Concept, photography, design: Tanya Plonka

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Ammena Dance Company’s “An Explosion of World Dance and Music” 2014 is just about here! Tickets will be on sale on February 4th at the Yates Memorial Centre in Lethbridge and this year we are finally doing TWO shows: Friday February 28th and Saturday March 1st!

There are a lot of props being used in the dance pieces this year so it was important to incorporate some of them into the poster. The petals and the fan veils were the most colorful props, so of course they seemed like the most natural fit! Ammena had to hold much less still this year since she had the floor helping her with her poses, so I think she had a much nicer modeling experience (as opposed to last year where I made her hold still for up to 5 minutes at a time!).

Model, Wardrobe: Ammena Talhami
Makeup and Hair: Ammena Talhami
Concept, photography, design: Tanya Plonka, rose concept Ammena

Oh, and by the way, we did two posters this year! The second is behind the cut: (more…)

Ammena Dance Company’s “An Explosion of World Dance and Music” 2013 will be taking place on Saturday March 2nd at the Yates Memorial Centre in Lethbridge.

Tickets will be on sale on February 5th and seeing as how they sold out within a week last year, make sure you pick yours up early! But don’t go until I get the tickets I need to pick up ;)

With Bollywood and Bhangra being back in a big way this year, our goal was to combine that with more of a burlesque style (another big feature of the show). However, when it came down to poster design, I wasn’t feeling that the Bhangra photos were blending in and just focused on the cute feather showgirl costume that was chosen!

Ammena did her own hair and makeup for the Bhangra photoshoot, and the super talented Jenn joined us the next evening to totally capture the classic showgirl look.

This year’s show is just as diverse as the others, featuring Afro-Cuban, Bollywood, Bhangra, dancehall, jazz, tap, and as usual, bellydance. Sadly I’m not doing a solo this year as I needed to focus on my own wedding planning, but I still found the time to be in four group pieces!

Model, Wardrobe: Ammena Talhami
Makeup Artist and Hair: Jennifer Murray
Concept, photography, design: Tanya Plonka

And hey, what’s that blue stuff?? (more…)