The dance of ballet is around 500 years old, and is still a staple in the world of classical arts. Some may think of it as highbrow entertainment, but these sensational onscreen stories about the art shows that this world goes a lot deeper than that.
Billy Elliot (2000) / Photo Credit: Universal Pictures
1. Billy Elliot (2000)
Jamie Bell's extraordinary debut is a story with so much depth you'd be forgiven for thinking it's based on a true story. It isn't, but it's set during a very real time in history; the mid-80s coal miners' strike in North East England. Whilst his father and brother face off against police on the picket line, Billy secretly drops boxing lessons for ballet and quickly becomes a dancing sensation thanks to his teacher Mrs. Wilkinson.
2. Black Swan (2010)
A little less on the wholesome side, Black Swan is about a talented dancer named Nina (Natalie Portman) who's breakthrough role in Swan Lake turns into a nightmare as her mind is taken over by disturbing hallucinations involving her alternate Lily (Mila Kunis). Directed by Darren Aronofsky, the film was partially inspired by the Fyodor Dostoevsky novella The Double.
3. Ballet Shoes (2007)
Not strictly about ballet per se, but about three adopted sisters who each embark on a career in the performing arts. The youngest, Posy, is a natural when it comes to ballet (not unexpected as she was adopted with her real mother's ballet shoes) and while she does indeed land a dream contact for a school in Czechoslovakia, she and her sisters must first learn the importance of taking care of each other.
4. Save the Last Dance (2001)
Again, it's not a film about ballet, but about a ballet dancer named Sara who decides to turn to hip hop dancing instead, and subsequently falls in love with a fellow dancer, Derek. The pair find themselves confronted by racist remarks regarding their interracial relationship which threatens to disrupt Sara's success at an important audition for a dance school.
5. The Red Shoes (1948)
Probably one of the most legendary British films of all time, The Red Shoes is loosely based on the Hans Christian Andersen story of the same name. It's about a dancer who is caught in a love triangle between her composer lover and her employer, a ballet impresario. It ends in tragedy, but was so iconic that it landed two Academy Awards and numerous nominations.
6. The Turning Point (1977)
This dancing drama is interesting in that it is loosely based on the friendship between ballerinas Isabel Mirrow Brown and Nora Kaye, with Isabel's daughter Leslie Browne starring as a fictionalised version of herself in the film. Following her film role, she worked with the American Ballet Theatre for seven years.
7. The White Crow (2018)
The last directorial venture of Oscar-nominated actor Ralph Fiennes, The White Crow is inspired by Julie Kavanagh's biography Rudolf Nureyev: The Life. He was a legendary ballet dancer, famous for causing a sensation by defecting from the Soviet Union to France during the Cold War. Throughout his life he did exactly what he wanted to do.
Tagged in Dance