Art and culture: A Ballerina's Tale

George Nelson

Release date: October 14, 2015 (USA)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Y2h6fz2XzQ

Summary:

The IFC short film “ A ballerina’s Tale” is a must see by all audiences. The film examines the life and career of Misty Copeland, the first African American principal dance at the New York’s American Ballet Theater. During the series she serves as the narrator and the subject. The film begins with archival footage of a young Copeland at a small ballet studio and focuses on her cultural impact and professional ascension, despite injuries and other challenges, without really going into her personal history. A very dramatic scene in the documentary is, Copeland suffers a serious injury. She gets a look of uncertainty in her eyes, she is shown being handled roughly by a physical therapist. But, as she explains, ballerinas train themselves to hide their pain, and throughout “A Ballerina’s Tale,” there are very few cracks in Ms. Copeland’s mask. In the middle of the film she talks about how there were no other black ballerinas which would make her feel discouraged.. After her biggest injury know-one thought she would return but she proves them wrong and returns even better than before. Misty story is impactful. It shows how successful a person can be if they are willing to get out of the norm and cross boundaries.

Response: I think after watching this documentary I have come to the conclusion that this film is missing a lot of key elements that make it not good. Seems rushed and very poorly directed. What a wasted opportunity. The director had Access to Misty Copeland but did not take full advantage of it. So much telling and not showing For example the words "Dreams do come true" or some such nonsense”, is repeated a lot. the overuse of text on black cards really took one out of the film. All the key moments were relayed using text - this is not a book, the sloppy editing, Poor storytelling. And I do agree - the missed opportunity to talk about being a "light skinned" African American, the nuances and complexities of that fact. Important emotional moments in Misty's story were relayed by other people instead of by Misty herself. "what Misty really wants is...." can't we hear from Misty herself? How did she feel when she became a soloist, a principal, how does that happen? The Under Armour deal was a big one that's a key plot moment that she never addresses - that ad went viral. What's her relationship with her parents, her siblings? Extremely frustrating. We don't ever get a sense of Misty the person.

-Calvin Nimely