I'm a lifelong Salt Lake-area resident, former (ten-year) student of ballet, and occasional season subscriber to Ballet West, so I've been quite interested to see what this Ballet West reality show would turn out to be. Ballet West is an old and much-respected company and its dancers' personal lives are frequently commented on locally--the unusually high count of married couples in the company, in particular--and so I'm not surprised that they were deemed strong subjects for a ballet reality show. The obsessive ballet world was ripe for reality show treatment, and so far I'm glad that our local dancers were chosen for the job. (Another selling point: reality show subjects with ties to Mormonism/Utah seem to be Hot Stuff in TV Land. I think network executives have discovered the fierce viewer loyalty Mormons provide anyone they perceive as being connected to their culture, even indirectly.)
Of course, a more documentary treatment of ballet would have been preferable--there are some standard reality show elements in Breaking Pointe that made me laugh out loud. For starters, suspicious editing practices: was that shot of principal artist Christiana Bennett scowling really a reaction to the new girl's praised performance, or completely unrelated? There's some typical forced conversation and amplified drama: does the real Allison really walk up to other dancers unprovoked and mockingly reduce their superior abilities to fat, sturdy ankles? I doubt you'd survive long professionally with such behavior, unless you've been cast as the Villain and charged with the task of stirring up on-screen mischief. And there are also a few too-convenient symmetries, as the envied rising star and her only close friend are promoted and canned, respectively. Did company director Adam Sklute choose which handful of dancers to feature based on the drama of the particular fates he already had planned for them? Or maybe he fired Katie for no other reason than to provide a nice dramatic contrast to Beckanne's good fortune, as well as the side benefit of romantic tension in parting Katie from her dancer boyfriend? Though I was not surprised to see such familiar reality show devices in the show, I was a little disappointed.
But I can't compare a reality show airing on a crappy minor network to Great Documentary Cinema, and for all its flaws I think this show must sit somewhere near top of the reality show heap. I was glad to see that the producers haven't tried to impose a general cat fight vibe on the company--a rare thing in the reality show world, where the assumption is that viewers tune in to see real or fabricated animosity between the characters. Except for Villain Allison (whose evil seems a bit forced, as I already mentioned), the dancers come across as driven and ambitious but ultimately good-natured and occasionally self-deprecating. Overwhelmingly likable. I certainly want to believe the best of these people: I have a fondness for them after watching them onstage for years--Bennett in particular--so it's great to see that this is a better-than-average reality show and portrays the dancers as being better-than-average human beings. The dancing here is beautiful and the dancers are quite articulate in explaining their world, and so if I can make it through next week's Ballet Babes Gone Wild bikini episode without being fatally annoyed, I expect I will enjoy the rest of this series very much.
Of course, a more documentary treatment of ballet would have been preferable--there are some standard reality show elements in Breaking Pointe that made me laugh out loud. For starters, suspicious editing practices: was that shot of principal artist Christiana Bennett scowling really a reaction to the new girl's praised performance, or completely unrelated? There's some typical forced conversation and amplified drama: does the real Allison really walk up to other dancers unprovoked and mockingly reduce their superior abilities to fat, sturdy ankles? I doubt you'd survive long professionally with such behavior, unless you've been cast as the Villain and charged with the task of stirring up on-screen mischief. And there are also a few too-convenient symmetries, as the envied rising star and her only close friend are promoted and canned, respectively. Did company director Adam Sklute choose which handful of dancers to feature based on the drama of the particular fates he already had planned for them? Or maybe he fired Katie for no other reason than to provide a nice dramatic contrast to Beckanne's good fortune, as well as the side benefit of romantic tension in parting Katie from her dancer boyfriend? Though I was not surprised to see such familiar reality show devices in the show, I was a little disappointed.
But I can't compare a reality show airing on a crappy minor network to Great Documentary Cinema, and for all its flaws I think this show must sit somewhere near top of the reality show heap. I was glad to see that the producers haven't tried to impose a general cat fight vibe on the company--a rare thing in the reality show world, where the assumption is that viewers tune in to see real or fabricated animosity between the characters. Except for Villain Allison (whose evil seems a bit forced, as I already mentioned), the dancers come across as driven and ambitious but ultimately good-natured and occasionally self-deprecating. Overwhelmingly likable. I certainly want to believe the best of these people: I have a fondness for them after watching them onstage for years--Bennett in particular--so it's great to see that this is a better-than-average reality show and portrays the dancers as being better-than-average human beings. The dancing here is beautiful and the dancers are quite articulate in explaining their world, and so if I can make it through next week's Ballet Babes Gone Wild bikini episode without being fatally annoyed, I expect I will enjoy the rest of this series very much.