Ballerina

Ballerina. Fascinating, enthralling, shrouded in mystery. Hers is a rare art. Her craft as demanding as an athlete. Her dancing life as brief as a butterfly. All to a vision of fragile beauty. A vision of what it is to be a woman. And Russia, land of absolutes, of the cult of beauty, of immensities and of nostalgia where that feminine ideal is celebrated and held dear. Russia is par excellence the land of the Ballerina. This film follows the destinies of five female dancers of the Kirov Ballet in Saint-Petersburg. Their lives weave together to tell the story of the Russian Ballerina of our time, from her beginnings as a child in dance school to the peak of her glory on the world stages. In this intimate gaze at the lives, the courage, the disappointments and triumphs of these women, this film unveils the vitality and uniqueness of the Russian Ballerina today. We come to understand her lasting allure as we begin the 21st century. Ballerina, as old as Russian history, as new as today.