TV Time: Breaking Pointe
Ballet West Company Members image from cwtv.com
She Said: Breaking Pointe
(This review contains spoilers)
I love ballet. When I was a little girl I wanted to grow up and be a ballerina. I took several years of ballet classes but when I hit puberty I found out that I was the wrong body type for continuing. It wasn’t very fun to be a twelve year old that wanted to diet and felt ashamed of their hips and bosom. I stopped dancing because we couldn’t afford it and it’s probably for the best anyway. I still experience ballerina body envy sometimes so I might have really been messed up about my figure. Physically I take after the Cherokee heritage in my family and I’m shorter, curvier and when I make a muscle it isn’t a sinewy muscle, it’s packed. But, I still love ballet so I was super excited when I heard about Breaking Pointe (Thursday at 8:00 eastern on CW). I thought this show sounded like it had the potential to be awesome and I really enjoyed it.
It’s a reality show in the style of Laguna Beach or The Hills. The show was filmed over a six -week period at Salt Lake City’s Ballet West Company. I really like shows that show the difficulties of being a professional in the world of performing arts. I have acted in professional theatre in fact I did my apprenticeship at Barter Theatre, one of the best theatres in the country. While it was exciting and amazing there were also parts of it that were really hard. Sometimes when you just see a scripted television show about the arts people get the idea that it’s really a lot more fun and easy that it is. Working as a professional and especially getting started, as an artist is hard, humbling and exhilarating work. Breaking Pointe did a very good job of showing the balance of the tension and the awesomeness of life as a working artist.
The opening episode focuses on company auditions. As an actor I’ve been on tons of auditions and I hate them. They are stressful and no matter how well you do nothing is promised to you. I really felt their nerves and emotion as the cast waited to get offers or rejections. I liked that they showed the various points of security in a company total (which is what you dream about), getting fired (horrible!) and advancement (amazing, thrilling, wonderful). I felt awful for the girl who didn’t get asked to stay but I felt like someone probably would be making the journey of finding work elsewhere on the show. I just didn’t want it to be Katie.
The dancers featured on the show are a fairly interesting group of people. Katie is adorable and a great dancer. I hope she gets a good job at another company. Christiana is exactly what you would expect a principal dancer to be in appearance and she seems really nice. I can’t stand the rude girl (I think her name is Allison) and I don’t think she’s even a very good dancer. The real star of the show for me is Beckanne. She’s so sweet and she’s an amazing dancer. I could watch an hour of her dancing. The other dancers had better watch out because she’s awesome! The boys are kind of boring. Ronnie is a big show off and I really hope he never, ever does his obscene “other kind of dancer” moves again. The two brothers are hard to keep straight because they look alike and both date girls in the company.
I like this show. I like learning about other artists and their life. It’s so wonderful to see a show about the performing arts. I hope they won’t make too much of a focus on just their personal lives and they really keep the focus on the dynamics of the company. My hope is that the show won’t be tacky and salacious because it has such a wonderful opportunity to be something different in reality television. And, please show us more of Beckanne’s beautiful dancing!
Rating- 7
Ballet West Dance Shoes and Theater image from cw.tv.com
He Said Breaking Pointe
I love dance. Dance is not unmanly. The great Gene Kelly once did a great special that compared dance movements to movements from sports. It’s really cool, but you can’t find it anywhere. I also love professional reality shows that show professionals really doing what they do best and the drama that comes along with it. Breaking Pointe did a very good job of combining those things, and throwing in a dash of The Hills while they’re at it.
The first episode introduced us to all the characters here, and has some interesting things going on. Everyone is getting his or her contract offers. Most people are excited to be there, with two notable exceptions. Ronnie and Katie, both of whom look to have great stories for this show. Ronnie, a gear head, is mad that he didn’t get a promotion to Principal Artist. Poor Katie didn’t get asked back at all. Since we see from next weeks teaser that Ronnie hasn’t returned his contract, my guess is that this season will see both go on auditions with other companies. I wonder if Ronnie is jeopardizing the job he has, I don’t know how accepting of looking for other work dance companies are. Katie has the added drama that her boyfriend Ronald is still working for the company. Ronald’s big conundrum is that he’ll now have to pick between working with his brother, Rex, or find something wherever Katie gets work. Rex is going through his own drama with Allison, who he clearly cares about, but doesn’t want to be in a relationship with anyone so that she doesn’t have to have any sense of accountability. I really hope he manages to stay away from her, because his boss is noticing that his dancing is suffering. Meanwhile, the company’s prima ballerina Christiana is looking to console Rex, and I wonder if they won’t wind up a couple when all is said and done. Christiana is also watching her back for newcomer Beckanne (I would totally change that name) who is getting promoted very fast, who finds her success bittersweet because she’s friends with Katie.
I bet you’re either really confused, or sucked in. Me, I’m sucked in. I’m really looking forward to seeing how this company is run. Speaking of running the company, the one annoying thing about this artistic director is that he wears a suit too much of the time. The artistic director is more football coach than basketball coach, with having to correct form during rehearsals and all, so it’s kind of weird.
Rating 8
