Tuesday night movie: First Position

First Position
 

Until my late teens I was dancing five times a week, so watching First Position brought back vivid memories, both good and bad, of high-pressure ballet exams and competitions. Over the course of a year, filmmaker Bess Kargman (also a former bun-head) followed half a dozen ballet wannabes between the ages of 9 and 19 vying for ballet school scholarships and company spots awarded by the highly prestigious and competitive Youth America Grand Prix.

Blistered and bloody feet, unexpected falls, pulled tendons, arch stretching apparatus and the art of dancing through the pain—we see how it’s the intense joy of the art form that pulls these young dancers through the stress and pressure from parents, and teachers, and oneself.

The film, Kargman’s first feature-length documentary, premiered at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival and was a popular pic, taking runner-up for best doc for the People’s Choice award. Since then, it’s racked up various other awards on the festival circuit.

We witness driven dancers from around the world finding their footing in adolescence, and on the dance floor, while they share their compelling stories. Some of them are just kids who like to have fun, and just happen to adore ballet, like the expressive 11-year-old American Aran Bell. He lives in Naples with his military family and enjoys unicycling, hopping around on his pogo stick and BB guns.

Then we meet Michaela De Prince, originally from Sierra Leone, 14, who was adopted by an American family and was inspired to dance when she came across a magazine cover of a smiling ballerina. Also leaving his home, Columbian dancer Joan Sebastian Zamora, 16, moves to the United States to pursue his passion with the hopes of providing a better life for his family.

The youngest of the bunch, the spunky, smiley Jules Jarvis Fogarty, 10, and his older sister Miko, 12, coached by their exuberant, tough-love mentor Viktor Kabaniaev, show us the delicate juncture where a child can choose to love or leave the art.

The film is an enjoyable watch, especially if you’ve ever danced as a kid and learned “first position,” the basic ballet stance where the heels of your feet touch and form a turned-out V shape. For a feature first, Kargman captures the dancers in candid, expressive moments that succeed in captivating even the non-ballet fan. ■

First Position is in theatres.