BECOMING A SWAN is a documentary project about young ballet dancers from 4 different institutions around the world who are about to become professional dancers.
The documentary BECOMING A SWAN follows young ballet dancers at four very different institutions around the world as they take their first steps into the professional dance scene. A world full of poetry and passion. Full of dreams and disappointments. Full of pain and full of beauty. It is the contrasts that make the film so worth telling, but it is the unifying power of the love of music and dance that allows these young people, despite doubts and frustrations, to realize their dream on the great stages of our world.
The film is about four dance venues in four different corners of this world. We accompany the young protagonists at the Ecole de Danse de l’Opéra National de Paris in France, at the SF Ballet School and Alonzo King LINES Ballet in San Francisco, as well as at the Bavarian Junior Ballet Munich. The young people give everything for their great passion, dance. They are ready to make great sacrifices and renunciations, they dream of being on stage and experience their fulfillment in the moments in front of an audience. Maturity is demanded of the young artists at an early age, they have to decide early on for this one path, because their career is short. And despite all their professionalism, they are young people who also want to have fun, laugh together, fall in love, who miss their families and appreciate community. The film tells the stories of the young dancers on and off stage.
They are young people who put their bodies at the service of art, and most of them have been striving for the unattainable goal of perfection since early childhood. It is all the more important that they train in a protected environment to achieve the highest performance. The documentary will carefully examine whether this is the case in all four institutions. How do these young people achieve the desired discipline, uniformity and supposed perfection? To what extent is it the free will of the young artists and to what extent do the teachers use their power to press the young dancers into the uniformity of the ballet world? What role does „MeToo“ play, what is the point of pointe dancing despite ingrown toenails and bloody feet? Why are prolapsed intervertebral discs in men’s ballet and the struggle for optimal weight part of everyday life? Some of the things that seem „normal“ to the young dancers already appear to be abuse when viewed from the outside. But although the young people have grown up in this system, they do not always lack distance. The discussion about the right way of teaching and treating the bodies of the young dancers is getting louder and louder. The film takes an open but also critical look at the institution „ballet schools“, in Munich as well as in Paris, San Francisco or Munich. And the differences are enormous.
DOCUMENTARY | 58 Minutes | Germany, France, USA
Director: Benedict Mirow | Script: Deike Wilhelm
Commissioning Editor (Germany): Theresa-Martina März (BR), Sylvia Griss (arte)