First Position

We saw this blast-from-the-past (for me) film First Position a couple of weekends ago.

Took the whole family. There's plenty in it for the boys, though the 14-year-old was less enthused than the 19-year-old.

From the title to the closing applause this film is well done. No better film on the subject, that I am aware of, has been made.

Documentary style, because of the other-worldly nature of ballet, perhaps especially ballet competitions, the end result is closer to a truer than life fiction than any fact-fatigued documentary.

Do young boys from Columbia really dream of ending up at the Royal Ballet School? Apparently. And we are all immeasurably better off for it.

This is the Columbian boy (16) in the poster. He can dance like we, most of us, can walk. He was made in every way to dance. Not to dance, when you are made that way (mind and body), would be a crying waste. The same goes for the girl adopted from Sierra Leone. Also the girl from Israel and the boy from Boston.

I recommend the film wholeheartedly. You're lucky if it's playing at a cinema near you (came out in 2011).

Sacha
(Former principal dancer of the Sydney City Ballet)