Synopsis
Documentary on the great American Ballerina Wendy Whelan
2017 Directed by Adam Schlesinger, Linda Saffire
Documentary on the great American Ballerina Wendy Whelan
A 30 year career as a dancer is something to marvel at.
And Wendy Whelan's career is more marvellous than most.
Suffering from scoliosis she went on to become a principal dancer with the NYCity Ballet and was a favourite with Jerome Robbins amongst others. With a name synonymous with the Balanchine method, she took a year off to recover from a broken hip which is where this doco finds her. Pondering - what would a life without dance look like when your whole life IS dance?
She returned to the stage, as a principal and danced for a further year before retiring for good.
Her determination to leave at the top says so much about her strength of character and technique, not to mention artistic drive and passion.
A must see for ballet fans everywhere.
This was a really lovely and heartwarming look at an artist who loves her craft more than anything. It's a pretty standard dance documentary with nothing particularly special in style to recommend it, but Wendy is a committed dancer and ballerina and it's a pleasure to watch her positivity and hard work on screen. I will commend the narrative of the piece, which is due almost entirely to Wendy herself, because it doesn't give in to the typical narrative of the deteriorating ballerina. The doc shows how she evolves over time rather than declines.
Nothing special to say about the style or filmography of this, but boy oh boy does the story make up for it! This was such a heart warming 90 minutes of one of the greats displaying her determination and sincerity to her craft. Ballet is not easy (as the doc showed us), but she STILL makes it look so effortless! Typically dancers have such a short career span, so it was really great to show her being in the industry for so long (given that you're body lets you). Great watch!
What am I gonna do when I grow up?
Toward the middle of the film, Wendy describes this process she’s going through — about a year prior to the filming, she began having a hip problem which caused her intense pain during most forms of movement, and the documentary follows a surgery to try to fix it and her immediate recovery/attempt to re-enter into ballet — as waking up from a dream she’s been living for 43 years. The conversation the quote at the top comes from, though, feels like the more incisive comparison. The quote isn’t said by Wendy herself, rather a friend who quit ballet at 22 and was describing how she felt then, but the words linger…
Beautifully articulated the shelf life of a ballerina in modern day ballet companies. We have to stop exploiting women’s bodies and tossing them away once they reach 30...
I would also just like to personally request one (1) hug from Wendy Whelan. That is all.
when she dances with max richter's on the nature of daylight is so delightful to watch.
ITS ABOUT BALLET! IT HAS KYLE ABRAHAM! IT HAS RATMANSKY! IT HAS WHEELDON! IT HAS NYCB! IT HAS MY QUEEN WENDY WHELAN!
Am I biased? yes!
Did I wholeheartedly love it! yes!
What do you do when you have half of your life left and you’ve both reached the apex of your career and damaged yourself so that it means you’ll never reach there again? I always wonder what dancers do when their instrument fails them. What is the next step?
Would have benefitted from being shorter, but involving and moving nonetheless, especially as subject so completely lives and breathes dance.