After reading Paula's Blog entry I decided to take some time out to watch the documentary "First Position". I found that as well just enjoying the documentary I could relate it to my inquiry.
First Position is a documentary that follows the lives of children and teenagers who come from a wide variation of different backgrounds through their training for an international ballet competition where they can win scholarships to prestigious ballet schools and apprenticeships to top ballet companies around the world.
The documentary filled me with amazement and inspiration and I felt very emotionally involved with what the children were going through. I felt like I could feel their passion and that the documentary stirred up my passion for dance and made me remember why I love dancing so much even though I hadn't realised that I had forgotten it.
I was surprised to see that one of the girls who the documentary focusses on is Michaela DePrince who Jacob Hughes has recently posted about. The girl who was adopted from Sierra Lione. I could not believe what a down to earth young woman she came across as being, given her traumatic past experience in life. How was she ever able to move forward from those experiences?
The documentary showed a lot of things which could be deemed to be unethical such as some of the children being fed low fat foods to keep them skinny, children dancing many hours of the day and possibly missing out on important parts of their childhood and children being painfully stretched by their parents and teachers.
The unethical point that relates to my inquiry also showed the young dancers dancing through injury. Many of the clips showed the dancers showing off their feet and how cut and bruised they were and lacking of toenails. One girl said "They look pretty in pointe shoes but not so pretty in real life." But she said this while smiling. There was also footage of dancers lying at the side of the studios, icing their injuries but they focussed quite a bit on the main injury story of Michaela DePrince.
Unfortunately Michaela became injured with tendonitis in her achilles before the final of the competition and was unsure if she would be able to take part and perform. Her family and teachers did not push her to do it if she didn't want to, but the competition was for a huge prize. In the end Michaela went to the competition.
I don't want to ruin the documentary as it's definitely one to watch so I will not reveal the outcomes but it raised some questions for me.
If the judging panel knew that injured daners were taking part should they have done something to stop this?
By taking part in the competition Michaela could have ruined all her chances of becoming a dancer by making her injury too bad to recover. Therefore is it unethical that Michaela took part in the competition or was the chance of the prize to great an opportunity to risk?
Is it unethical that her parents allowed her to take part as she is only 14? Or, Is it ethically ok because it is Michaela who decided wether or not she should dance and take responsibility for her own body even though she is only young?
Through these questions my personal answer is that from Michaela's point of view what ever she wants to do is morally right as it is her body and therefore her decision. What do you think?
Watch this space for Michaela DePrince and my other favourite from the documentary Joan Sebastian Zamora. Amazing.
 |
| Official poster from First Position |
Hi Emily, I haven't had chance to see the Documentary yet, but sounds like a really interesting one for all of us dancers- on many levels.
ReplyDeleteThere are issues similar to the one with Michaela and her injury which happen all the time in companies; dancers are scared to admit to injury as it can jeopardise chances of being cast in certain pieces, or can make you look unreliable, weak or lazy. But, obviously injury is a natural part of exercise and Directors/ Dance Captains/ Ballet Masters should be more accepting of this fact. I remember when I broke my wrist and had to tell my Director I had 6 weeks in a cast, I left his office in tears because he simply didn't believe me that I had done it in the studio, and implied that I had been careless or been doing extreme sports in my spare time. Ridiculous. But when dealing with artists, I suppose we are all culprits; eg. dancing while sustaining injuries to 'get through' a show or for marking during a rehearsal because you are in pain and know that you have to manage to do it full out that night. Maybe the documentary is harsh, but isn't that what it's like when your in the real profession.....
Hi Alicia, yes you're right this is what it is like in the profession and that's the reason that we make ourselves get on with it .Whether it is unethical or not sometimes if we don't make ourselves dance through pain we may not have a job, or a scholarship or a place!
DeleteEmily, where can I watch this documentary? Is it available online somewhere?
ReplyDelete