Sloan Mesteth swayed side to side, her round face and eyes locked on the camera, her 8-year-old fingertips dancing over the bells on her dress.

"She must be nervous; she's playing with her jingles," said Lisa Mesteth, who stood in the shadows of the dimly lit room Thursday and watched as famed photographer Don Doll took pictures of her granddaughter in a traditional Lakota jingle dress.

Doll, who was ordained a priest in 1968, and most well-known for his photography and works of service on reservations and in poverty-stricken third-world countries, made his annual visit to Red Cloud Indian School on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation last week to photograph students in their traditional regalia. The photographs are used in an annual calendar given to supporters of the school.

As part of the calendar shoot, Doll gives each student digital copies of their photographs for use in their own home.

Doll's visit this year was his thirteenth, and he hoped to create something different, breaking from the still shots that have become standard in the calendar.

"I wanted to get away from the static poses we've been doing all these years," he said in between quiet clicks of the camera.

For the first time, he asked the students to dance, sway, move to the beat of the traditional Lakota music echoing from a nearby loudspeaker.

But many of the younger students were too shy to dance, standing silently in their moccasins, feathers, beaded leggings, and dresses, grinning when Doll teased them, the vibrant colors of their outfits standing out under the bright lights and black backdrop.

In the hallway, Connie Lopez hurried to dress her son, Ty Morgan, 6. Many students are photographed, but only 12 make the final cut for the large photos featured each month. Morgan was January last year.

"When we first got it, it was awesome," Lopez said. "It was amazing."

Morgan's father's native name is Paints on Horse, and the boy was carrying on that name by wearing deep blue with white angora covering his ankles and feet, and a boned breast plate for his chest.

Other students in the hallway munched on cookies as they waited, some of them sitting on benches as aunts, mothers and grandmothers braided their hair.

Inside, Doll knelt in front of the students, directing the smallest of movements to get a shot - a feather moved here, toes pointed a little more toward the light, a fan spread wider. He gently prodded Faith Short Bull, 8, to twirl her shawl - faster and faster.

"Are you alright? Are you going to live?" he asked her in a mocking tone that made her smile.

Even if he goes with a different style of photos this year, Doll's criteria for the final shots that make the calendar will be the same as every year before it. Whatever shots have the best lighting, best outfits and best expression make the cut.

He won't be alone in his decisions; a trusted assistant will be on hand to help him choose.

"She sometimes finds pictures I don't see," Doll said.

After deciding what photos will be published in the calendar, the pictures are then matched to the month, according to the colors of the shot and the students in the photo.

Doll was a past recipient of the Kodak Crystal Eagle Award for Impact in Photojournalism for his project, "Vision Quest: Men, Women and Sacred Sites of the Sioux Nation," that focused on the people of the Sioux reservations.

Red Cloud officials say the calendar is about celebrating the students, their culture, and the realities of living on the reservation. In the end, Doll said, it's also about generosity.

"You want the picture to say, 'I'm so darling, you better send money to this school.'"

Contact Kayla Gahagan at 394-8410 or kayla.gahagan@rapidcityjournal.com