Knowing that it takes years of intense training (read: huuuge time commitment) to become a professional ballet dancer, a lot of people outside the ballet world want to know, what happens when you (or your body) decide it’s time to stop dancing?

With programs like Boston Ballet’s partnership with Northeastern University and Alvin Ailey’s affiliation with Fordham University, earning a college degree while dancing with a professional company is not as unattainable as it once was (me, I’m part time at Providence College).  For some dancers, though, school is not the answer to their ballet blues, but instead seeking an alternative art form quenches their thirst for change.

This was exactly the case with Kylli Sparre, who completed her professional ballet training, only to put down her pointe shoes and pick up a camera.  Photography quickly filled the void where ballet once thrived, and she has “never looked back”.  Her incredible surrealist photographs capture a divine sense of wanderlust and reflect her expansive imagination- all while paying a subtle, unintentional tribute to her ballet background.  Sparre says, “I never realized that I am inspired by dance until people started telling me that. So it is unconscious. Now I see that it influences the way I see the lines of a body and the movement [that] I am drawn to.”  And we are so glad it does.  Check out more of her stunning images, which she describes as capturing “relationships, emotions and the many forms of solitude” below:

photos via