Baletky – Čechová Miřenka (2020)

Ballet dancers have two faces. The front one, smiling and perfect, which the audience sees. And then the hidden one, when they disappear behind the curtain, the prescribed smile falls away and their face twists into a haggard grimace because they are suffocating. While dancing, they cannot breathe through their mouths. Their eyes bulge and they gasp for air. If someone filmed ballet dancers like this, it would be a showcase of suffering. But they are trained for it. Just like the main character of this story. Every day she endures ballet drills like in the army. She is not yet fourteen, and she is already an expert in using laxatives and vomiting to maintain her weight, in treating bloody toes, and in binding her breasts. And on top of that, she is discovering club life in Prague. It’s the 1990s, gingerbread and ecstasy are in vogue, and she is exploring sex and finding out that she has a stepbrother who is completely different from what she would want. And that her dream of becoming a ballerina and dancing in the Golden Chapel is turning into a nightmare. Director and dancer Miřenka Čechová draws from her own experiences and diary entries. Her prose is a self-ironic, raw, and ruthless depiction of studies at the Dance Conservatory and life in Prague during the wild 90s.