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Ballet
Frederick Wiseman captures the pursuit of perfection at the American Ballet Theatre, as dancers balance professional demands with their personal lives
Director: Frederick Wiseman
Overview
This documentary captures life inside New York’s American Ballet Theatre, one of the world’s most prestigious ballet companies. All areas of the institution are observed: star dancers in intensive rehearsal, artistic staff shaping a production, and managers running operations behind-the-scenes. The film also shows how dancers balance the profession’s demands with the pressures of everyday life.
Frederick Wiseman’s appreciation of dance is self-evident in the first of his two films to focus on ballet. While this profile includes the company’s institutional processes, what stays in the mind are the extended sequences of rehearsals and rigorous preparation (for productions such as Sleeping Beauty and Romeo and Juliet) in pursuit of the perfect performance.
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