Awesome (and intoxicated) Documentary Time! First Position
It's late, almost midnight, and here I am, sipping my drink (take equal parts V8 Splash Berry Blend and Pomegrante juice, and top with hard cider. Need a name other than "The Auburn Hussy") and watching one of my favorite docs. So now I'm sharing the doc but not the drink. Sorry, but you gotta make your own ;)
First Position is about the world of ballet. When my daughter asked to take ballet, I watched this with her. And she loved it; the costumes, the graceful leaps and twirls... but when the dancers took their shoes off and showed what their feet looked like, well, that dose of reality wiped the excitement from her eyes. If she's unwilling to put up with messed up feet, then she doesn't have the passion to pursue that goal-- and that's okay. If she changes her mind, that's okay too, but at least she'll know that being graceful and able to plie with the best of 'em comes at a cost, as those featured in the documentary discover for themselves.
None of the dancers featured were 18 at the time First Position was filmed; from ages 9 to 17, none were spared the harsh rigors of auditioning for the biggest ballet competition in the world:
If they win, they get a scholarship (and since that level of ballet gets expensive, it's highly sought after) to one of the premier ballet schools.
It's amazing to see the feats of athleticism these dancers unleash; it's hard to see them contorting their bodies in ways they obviously weren't meant to contort, and seeing the discomfort and pain on their faces.
Here's some clips of the various dancers from the doc and clips of them now(ish), and the full documentary down at the bottom.
Parts I love:
The dancing. It's a given, considering my fangirling earlier. But what they do is beautiful.
Miko and JJ's instructor's expression as JJ does his dance to audition to the finals.
Joan Sebastian's reunion. His joy is evident and contagious.
Michaela's story. She's awesome.
Now for the critical bits:
Gaya's mother and the overt sexualization of her child; hey it's nice that the first person they filmed applauding Gaya's "adult-faced" performance was a priest licking his lips. Ick. Subtle message of the prevalence of sexual abuse in the art? I hope not.
Miko and JJ's mom: she comes off pushy. I get the feeling JJ went along with what his mom wanted just so she wouldn't nag...and her meltdown at his choice kinda seals that notion.
Hands-on and slap-happy French instructor of Aran Bell. Dude, don't be putting your hands on a kid like that so much.
I find it interesting that Rebecca and Aran both were raised in Maryland and got their start in ballet in that particular state.
Can't vouch for the quality of the "full" documentary here; every time I try to play it, my browser crashes (been doing that for ALL youtube vids... think I made their shitlist.) so I copy and pasted the link.