Behind-the-curtains has never been more ravishing nor more rewarding

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 16, 2009

This rare, behind-the-scenes dance film, which is more a profile of dancers than of the dance, shows that Russia and its famed Kirow are still the world's core of ballet.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 27, 2009

Dance aficionados will be sent over the moon by this compelling documentary from director Bertrand Norman, chronicling what it takes to be a prima ballerina in the Mariinski Theatre.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | May 1, 2009

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 1, 2009

As dazzling as they can be in performance, the ballerinas are even more breathtaking when a camera catches them alone in the shadows, dancing only for themselves.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 30, 2009

... in its simplistic, by-the-book delivery, Ballerina does give an inkling of the blood and sweat hidden underneath the ethereal beauty of classical dance.

| Mar 27, 2009

The movie is an admirable look into the venerable St. Petersburg company and how dancers thrive or just survive in the physically challenging world of dance.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 27, 2009

It's too levelheaded, too aesthetically old-fashioned and academic.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 13, 2009

A jewel of a documentary.

| Mar 13, 2009

While the mysterious air of the ballerina is preserved, a chance to reveal the real people behind the iconic, ethereal image is squandered.

| Mar 13, 2009

...Ballerina looks behind the scenes ...to offer a closer look at the system of selection, training and rehearsal which keeps Russian ballet the envy of the world.

| Original Score: 6/10 | Mar 11, 2009

Even those skeptical of ballet will likely be entranced.

Full Review | Mar 4, 2009

Not as perceptive as Etoiles or as ... entertaining as Ballets Russes, [but] still a glimpse into a priviledged, ruthlessly demanding world few outsiders ever get to see.

| Mar 2, 2009

Such a brief glimpse into these women's lives and art whets the appetite for more; alas, Ballerina ends far too quickly, leaving only their willowy shadows behind.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Feb 26, 2009

Anyone who knows about ballet will find much to recognize in the lives of these young women, but for those who do not, the film will be a revelation.

| Original Score: B | Feb 26, 2009

Mildly compelling and somewhat fascinating, but often tedious, incomplete and lacking enough insight about what it's truly like to be a ballerina.

| Original Score: 5/10 | Jan 30, 2009

Ballet lovers will enjoy the footage of the young ballerinas taking command of their respective performances.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 17, 2009

That something so beautiful can exist in this modern world is, itself, a source of wonder.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 16, 2009

Ballerina will be of interest mostly to balletomanes, but even folks who don't know their right foot from their left will find inspiration in the lives of these devoted dancers. Besides, who isn't moved by Swan Lake?

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 16, 2009

If only a glimpse, the privilege compensates: one wants more from Ballerina because the world it reveals -- elegant and harsh, glamorous and grinding, classical and obsolete -- proves so rich in exquisite contradictions.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 16, 2009