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Ballerina

Play trailer Poster for Ballerina Released Jan 16, 2009 1h 17m Documentary Play Trailer Watchlist
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Tomatometer 2 Reviews 79% Popcornmeter 250+ Ratings
Bertrand Normand's intimate documentary begins with young dancer Alina Somova's acceptance into Russia's prestigious Kirov Ballet. Using her story and that of four other accomplished ballerinas at various stages in their careers, the film sheds light not only on the individual dancers' struggles, anxieties and achievements, but also on the significance of ballet in Russian culture. Clips of dance performances at St. Petersburg's famed Mariinsky Theatre are featured throughout the film.

Critics Reviews

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Anna King Time Out Rated: 1/5 Nov 18, 2011 Full Review Hank Sartin Time Out Rated: 2/5 Nov 17, 2011 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Audience Member Excellent peek into the lives of St. Petersburg's ballerinas. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/02/23 Full Review Audience Member The discipline these ladies have is just incredible! Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/12/23 Full Review Audience Member Would have 5 stars if Svetlana had more scenes. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/20/23 Full Review Audience Member I loved this documentary... nothing's prettier than Russian Ballet. It changed some ideas I had about exploitation of youth/beauty, too... cause the women you meet in the documentary (far from having some sort of emotional deficit that's fed by praise and perfection within some soulless machine) really have an empowered and artistic view of their own talents. And the interviews with theater people and choreographers make you believe they really do strive to create opportunities for the dancers to make their art and see themselves serving that purpose. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/14/23 Full Review Audience Member This was a really interesting look into the discipline it takes to be a ballerina! :) Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/27/23 Full Review Audience Member interesting look at the difficult world of ballet. i would have rather watched this in my college dance class then some of the movies we did watch Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/27/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Ballerina

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Ballerina

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Movie Info

Synopsis Bertrand Normand's intimate documentary begins with young dancer Alina Somova's acceptance into Russia's prestigious Kirov Ballet. Using her story and that of four other accomplished ballerinas at various stages in their careers, the film sheds light not only on the individual dancers' struggles, anxieties and achievements, but also on the significance of ballet in Russian culture. Clips of dance performances at St. Petersburg's famed Mariinsky Theatre are featured throughout the film.
Director
Bertrand Norman
Producer
Frédéric Podetti, Yann Brolli
Distributor
First Run
Genre
Documentary
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Jan 16, 2009, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
May 22, 2017
Box Office (Gross USA)
$113.2K
Runtime
1h 17m