TOW# 28: First Position (Documentary)

            A career in the ballet industry is hard to come by and very short lived. Children must start training at a very young age, giving up most of their childhood, to increases their own chances at success.  The documentary, First Position, follows a total of seven different ballet hopefuls prepare to compete at the worlds largest ballet competition, Youth American Grand Prix (YAGP).  First Position was released in 2011 and it aimed to show its viewers what life if like for young ballet dancers worldwide.

             The documentary tells the stories of 7 kids: Aran (11), Jules (10) Miko (12), Gaya (11), Joan Sebastian (16), Michaela (14), and Rebecca (17).  The film -makers used each child’s personal lives as anecdotes about what it’s like to be in training to be a professional dancer.  Each child has a story to tell; each story connects through ballet. For example, Michaela is an African Ballerina from Philadelphia who was adopted from Sierra Lion at the height of the war. While being interviewed for the documentary, she talks about how both her parents were killed in the war and how everywhere she turned she saw death. At the orphanage were she was staying there was a magazine with a ballerina on the cover, Michaela told herself if she ever left Sierra Lion she wanted to become like the dancer on the cover. Ballet became Michaela’s passion and helped her recover from a traumatizing experience. Dance is such an important part of her life, and just like all of the other children in the documentary, Michaela is willing to make sacrifices in order to achieve her goal of becoming a professional ballerina.

            Cinematography also played a huge role in getting the directors purpose across. By constantly switching between all the different stories, viewers were able to understand what each dancer had to do to prepare for the YAGP competition. At the end, all the stories ended up on the same place, and all of the children had the same goal, to win.

            I found First Position to be a very moving film.  Being a dancer myself, I was able to connect with the emotions that the kids were feeling. But, the documentary  also let see a whole new side of the dance world I had yet to be exposed to.