The ephemeral art of dance is a frustrating business for the aficionado as it leaves nothing but memories to be savoured following the last curtain call. It just vanishes into the air. Music recitals and art exhibitions can be retrieved as recordings and reproduced for later enjoyment, but not dance. And as for published reviews, they seldom evoke the poetry of dance; and pictures grabbed by busy press photographers may miss the humour, exuberance, pathos or aching beauty of a performance.

And so, after more than 20 years as an enthusiastic watcher of dance I decided to confront my disquiet about the transient nature of the performances, and see if I could produce convincingly evocative images with my camera.

Hitherto my photography had been confined to the theatre of street life, travel, documentary and press work and a mountaineer's view of the alpine world. Shooting dance and the human form would be a new and scary experience, but as documentary photographer Leonard Freed says, we have to confront our demons to advance in life.

The New Zealand School of Dance in Wellington agreed to my working in their studios in 1996. In shooting the dancers I used only available light and only once did I take them on location - to the Karori Cemetery. Otherwise I photographed them just as I found them in the studios and theatres. The school demanded a staggering amount of hard physical and mental work from the dancers, whose lives seemed a clutter of complex timetables, crowded locker rooms and adolescent insecurities over finance, relationships, dress, digs, health and talent.

Yet they constantly amazed and delighted with their discipline and ability to produce from this "chaos" a pure lyricism of movement and expression. It was humbling to work among so many dramatic and talented people, and I am grateful for the generosity and patience of the students and staff who gave me their trust. Much of my effort was spent trying to record perfection in technique and movement, but it was often their failure to achieve it that enabled me to create images that revealed the disappointment, pain and graft behind the illusion of effortless poise.