Dance on Film: Polina, danser sa vie

[pherank]

From the Fjord Review - an article about the dance film Polina, danser sa vie:

In Control
By Rachel Stone
Subverting the genre of dance movie, a new kind of bildungsroman

'In telling the creative journey of a ballerina turned choreographer, Polina fills the absence of dancer-artist narratives, while also illuminating the lack of these narratives in the ballet world.

Yet the film also essentially eliminates the structural obstacles to gender equality, creating a dance environment in which Polina’s path towards choreographic success feels possible, and almost inevitable. Very real difficulties exist, and are worth engaging with. What happens to your psyche when you are told over and over again that you are entirely replaceable? What happens when the choreography tells you the same thing?

Of course, discussions around gender parity are (and should) only be the first frontier of progress in the ballet world. Ballet is still shamefully racially homogenous—as Phil Chan illustrated in the Huffington Post, the art form is stratified through the high cost of dance lessons, minimal representation of dancers of color, and exclusionary “acceptable” body types. “People still have not embraced the notion of diversity within this art form because it’s always been seen as an exclusive art form,” Virginia Johnson, the artistic director of Dance Theater of Harlem, told Pointe Magazine. “It’s not only been exclusive of people of color—it’s been very class-oriented.”'

https://www.fjordreview.com/in-control-polina/

Edited December 3, 2017 by pherank