VIDEO: The trailer for Ballerina
The subject of Bertrand Normand's 2006 French-television documentary is actually five ballerinas from the Mariinsky Ballet of St. Petersburg (better known here as the Kirov Ballet, but now looking to revert to its original name): Uliana Lopatkina, Evgenia Obraztsova, Alina Somova, Diana Vishneva, and Svetlana Zakharova.
Diane Baker, a treat way back in Marnie, supplies the English-version voice-over narration, where clichés compete with platitudes (while some names get butchered), and the dancers themselves aren't much more revealing in their brief interviews.
You do appreciate how hard these women work every day, and the sacrifice their calling demands, and there are a few precious extended clips, notably Lopatkina in Balanchine's Diamonds and Obraztsova in Romeo and Juliet. But this is a baby-steps ballet doc, especially next to Ballets Russes, which spends its entire two hours proudly on pointe.
