First Position Review

Blog Post: Documentary Review

First Position (2011), directed by Bess Kargman, is an emotionally compelling observational documentary that sheds a new light on the youth ballet industry. Kargman manages to create a dramatic and almost inspiring story by following six young aspiring ballet dancers competing in the Youth America Grand Prix in hopes of winning scholarship money. The film shows the strains and overwhelming time commitments that young dancers and their families endure in order to pursue their dream. 

The real appeal of the documentary, to me, was the amount of depth in each different young dancer. The literary aspects of the film really got my attention. All of the different dancers, with various different life stories and point of views made the movie’s charm. Aran Bell, an American army brat, manages to dance even though he lives in Naples with his family. He travels everyday to train, maintaining an innocent friendship with an Israeli dancer, Gaya Yemini. In contrast, Joan Samora left his country, Columbia, and lives alone, with few contacts in New York while he trains. Miko Fogarty, a young girl with an overbearing dance mom, has had to completely change her lifestyle (diet, school and all) to train.

As with most dance competitions, the dancers wear extravagant and expensive costumes and make-u to appeal to the judges (dramatic aspects). The most climatic parts of the movie take place on the stage. The documentary, in other aspects, is very simple. The cinematography is nothing special and the sound effects are mostly diegetic sound.

I would recommend this movie to anyone with free time on their hands, it is not one to go out of your way for. The human interest stories of the young ballet dancers are moving, especially that of Joan Samora (it doesn’t hurt that he’s handsome). The dances are interesting, and by the end, I found myself really routing for all six dancers to win awards at the Grand Prix.