Etoiles - Dancers of the Paris Opera Ballet

What makes ballet worth the time and effort required of the dancers? What's the payoff? Etoile (star) Claire-Marie Osta says she has a mystical side and considered being a nun but was afraid that would afford insufficient opportunity for physical expression. She needed, in other words, to be a flying nun. The commitment required by ballet closes many other doors, but she never considered those opportunity costs as "sacrifices" because they are repaid a hundredfold. What's it like to move onto the brightly-lighted stage from the dark wings? "C'est magic," she says with a Mona Lisa smile. Marie-Agnes Gillot is asked if she loves ballet. Love is too weak a word, she answers. Former dancer Ghislaine Thesmar (who now rehearses dancers and is married to choreographer Pierre Lacotte) describes aspiring dancers not as students but "disciples." She admits that the system is a machine that "crushes" the weak (who are, of course, still children). Is it inhumane? Gillot says she "got some whacks" but "turned out OK." Indeed, she loved her time at ballet school. The goal of the elders is to pass on their love of ballet and foster talent. There is no affirmative action for the kinesthetically-challenged, and self-esteem arises only as a byproduct of achievement. Yet Thesmar is manifestly sensitive to the needs of individual dancers-- a fact confirmed by etoile Agnes Letestu, who credits Thesmar for not trying to make her over in Thesmar's image. Giggles are ubiquitous in this documentary. There's competition, uncertainty, stage fright, and lots of sweat, but these people are having fun. Lower-ranking dancers may spend six weeks of practice for two minutes of performance in "Swan Lake." It's insane, says Thesmar. Yet the most rueful comment corps dancers and understudies make is, "I'm not dancing" (in this production). Aurelie Dupont also "turned out OK," but is less willing than Gillot to exonerate the system and view its "inhumanity" as the price of excellence. Why pay the price? She describes herself as shy and credits ballet with helping to meet her "need to exist" by providing experiences on stage she would never seek in life. When introduced in social company as an etoile, she says people always go overboard on respect. (I would.) Shakespeare says "The summer's flower is to the summer sweet, though to itself it only live and die." Dupont hears the summer's applause but thinks that, still, she is just a ballerina. Which brings us to the most interesting "existential" question: can ballet be the meaning of life? Elisabeth Platel, on the occasion of her retirement after a performance of "La Sylphide," ticked off the many rewards of a life in ballet but closed with a rhetorical question: "but is that life?" For all its virtues, is ballet, perhaps, too one-dimensional? Is Osta really a flying nun-- or just a performing seal? (Forgive me, Claire-Marie, but I have to ask that question for the sake of argument.) What I'm hearing from these dancers is that ballet provides an opportunity for spiritual self-transcendence through dedication to a beautiful performing art. Dancing is wholesome. But dancers are just people, perhaps even "sinners" (although it is hard to think of them as sinners while they are dancing). Ballet does not "deliver" the meaning of life but provides what sociologist (and Christian) Peter Berger calls "signals of transcendence" or what C. S. Lewis calls joy-- "an unsatisfied desire which is itself more desirable than any other satisfaction." I think Osta is right to see ballet as a spiritual vocation, and I think Platel is right to see that ballet arouses desires it cannot satisfy. How fitting that Platel's last ballet should be "La Sylphide," which Thesmar describes-- almost as if she were C. S. Lewis-- in terms of the male's longing for the elusive and unattainable feminine ideal. Romantic? Yes-- and very spiritual. I'm not worried about spoiling the "plot" of the documentary by saying too much. One must see faces and hear voices to fully appreciate it. After viewing it several times, I loaned my copy to a former ballerina who, through no fault of her own, was unable to return it. I ordered a second copy and have also viewed it several times. It's my cult movie. (For me, the subtitles are a non-issue.)

I'm not a balletomane, but a photographer and am excited by images. I have a few ballets on tape of famous dancers but they don't hold my attention through a full ballet, but I have a copy of "Dancing for Mr. B" and that I find spellbinding. Watching and listening to the feelings, and personal experiences of the ballerinas I find to be a very moving experience because they express their passion and love for ballet in such an honest manner. So when I viewed "Etoiles" for the first time from a Netflix subscription I immediately bought two copies from Amazon; one for me and the other for my youngest daughter and my two granddaughters. My daughter has an interest in ballet and a passable command of the French language and my two small granddaughters; I know will respond to the visual part of this presentation. This is not a continuous ballet but snippets of every phase of the life of the dancers for the Paris Opera Ballet. It holds my attention because it affords an intimate glimpse into the lives of these beautiful people and discloses aspects of ballet that are not often seen; there's a lot of pain and despair but their love for their art helps them overcome these and keep dancing for as long as their bodies permit them. This sympathetic portrayal of their working lives to which they have made a lifelong commitment will offer you a unique experience and make you appreciate their efforts to please their audiences every time hereafter when you witness a ballet or a ballet dancer at work. Do not deny yourself this pleasure, there are excellent English subtitles but the dancers speak to you in the universal langauge of the dance.

Every ballerina should know about the French aesthetic and mastery of character. Less emphasis on dazzling athletics as the Russians do and more on embodying the actual story.

i give this dvd 3 stars and not more based on video quality inappropriate to the theme. this does not even rank as dvd quality.. even with my best equipment connected thru hdmi cables it is barely 320 resolution quality. i believe the content deserved better video capture.. it is as if it were produced thru a cheap flip phone. other reviews complaining of subtitle placement can be corrected by adjusting setup properties of the screen, video card, or other components in the rendering equipment. i was irritated by the uneven video quality throughout, especially as the camera would pan which would result in blurs and faded colors. i found no fault with the program content and will leave that for others to judge.

Absolutely fascinating look inside this iconic cultural treasure. The dancers, designers, and administrators are very open in discussing any aspect of producing the programs, and the viewer gets very revealing backstage views! My absolute favorite was 2 of the dancers in the corps de ballet whispering as they came off stage after executing a difficult and very long line that one was "too fast for me," and "her leg was touching mine." I always WONDERED how they did that with all those ballerinas, tutus, toe shoes, while creating beautiful designs on the state!

An engaging look at the hard work and sweat this discipline requires and how much the dancers sacrifice for beauty and perfection of movement. I've watched it twice already and am still enthralled, especially by the contrast between the public magic of the stage and the grittier reality of the backstage where dancers stretch and practice awaiting entrances and recover their breath and towel off sweat between movements.

A glimpse into the early careers of major stars of Paris Opera Ballet, including Marie-Agnes Gillot, known for her extreme height, and recently retired Aurelie Dupont and Agnes Letestu.We see rehearsals, interviews and interactions between dancers. We also see the incredible Opera building itself inside and out, and hear directors and ballet school leaders talk about the process of developing an etoile. Gorgeous film all around!