Happy Mother's Day! Love, SFB's Ballerina Moms

May 7, 2015

It’s Mother’s Day weekend—which means it’s a good time to remember that every mom is, basically, a superhero. Being a mom requires incredible strength and patience and all kinds of other superpowers.

But ballerina moms? Ballerina moms are simultaneously superheroes and fairy princesses. They somehow balance the demands of momdom with a physically strenuous job—one that asks them to transform themselves onstage every night. Doing all that requires not just superhuman strength, but also a little magic.

Photographer Lucy Gray spent 15 years following three San Francisco Ballet moms—Katita Waldo, Kristin Long and Tina LeBlanc (all now retired)—as they conjured that particular magic. The resulting book, Balancing Acts, came out this spring. Unsurprisingly, it’s full of beautiful, touching and crazy adorable images. And just in time for Mother’s Day, San Francisco’s Harvey Milk Photo Center will be presenting an exhibit of Gray’s photos, also titled “Balancing Acts,” from May 9–June 7. (You can find more info about the exhibit here.)

Not in the Bay Area? Never fear: Check out a few of our favorite images below, and click here to order your own copy of Balancing Act.

Happy Mother’s Day, everybody!