Secundaria

For years, the names of Cuban dancers have populated the rosters of ballet companies in the United States and around the world: Carlos Acosta; Xiomara Reyes; sisters Lorna and Lorena Feijóo; José Manuel Carreño.  In "Secundaria", director Mary Jane Doherty follows three teenaged dancers through their final three years at Cuba's National Ballet School in an attempt to discover how Cuba has produced so many world-class dancers -- and why so many choose to defect to other countries.

There is no shortage of films about aspiring young dancers, and as expected there are accounts of injuries and blistered toes, worries about the slim odds of getting a position with the company after school.  (In each graduating class, only a few dancers will make the cut.)  Yet Doherty's film also touches upon the particular experiences of Cuban students: a performance for which students have rehearsed for weeks must be cancelled when no working bus can be found in Havana; top students are paraded out to impress foreign dignitaries with their octuple pirouettes en pointe; and graduating students, who would easily find employment with foreign companies, are at risk of finding themselves unemployed if not accepted into the National Ballet.  An hour and a half is hardly long enough to begin to understand this cultural institution (oh, for it to be as comprehensive as Frederick Wiseman's sprawling documentary about the Paris Opera Ballet, "La Danse"), but we'll take what we can get.

"Secundaria" will have its New York premiere Monday, February 3 at 6PM.  Director Mary Jane Doherty and dancer Mayara Piñeiro will be present.  It will be screen alongside short film "Tizzy".

Hästdans på Hovdala

While animals do occasionally grace the stages of traditional ballets, they are usually afterthoughts to the production -- more set decoration than an active element of the choreography.  JoAnna Mendl Shaw, the Director of Equus Projects, creates works that combine the natural athleticism and grace of horses with that of dancers.

"Hästdans på Hovdala" documents Shaw's work with her own company and young autistic adults, who over 12 days collaborate on a site-specific work at the Hovdala castle and library.  It is a potentially interesting project, but with its confessional-style interviews (complete with doom-and-gloom lines like "Probably the biggest obstacle is time!"), the documentary often tends toward bad reality TV.  Also to the film's detriment, director David Fishel seems more interested in projecting what the company dancers have to say about working with autistic people than in letting them speak for themselves, making the entire project feel uncomfortably exploitative.

"Hästdans på Hovdala" will have its world premiere Saturday, February 1 at 1PM.  Subject JoAnna Mendl Shaw and dancers will be present.  It will be screened with short "Carry It On..."