Ruth Leon recommends… Silver Feet – San Francisco Ballet School

Silver Feet – San Francisco Ballet School

 Ballet is a cruel sport. Of the thousands of little girls (and some boys) who love their Saturday morning classes, learning to be a fairy or a butterfly is all they need or want. With luck, some will also learn grace and discipline along with the fun.

Most move on to other interests – school and boys and ponies – and ballet fades into a pleasant memory of their childhood. But not for all. Many catch the bug, for some it is an obsession, a belief that they can become a ballerina. I was one of those little girls and I remember the absolute conviction that if I tried hard enough I would one day float across the stage of Covent Garden on the tips of my toes in a white tutu.

There were lots of us, children who took it seriously, who went to ballet classes after and before school, who nagged for shoes and practice clothes, who practised at home, at school, in the street, in the studio, who tried out for every children’s chorus and who carried into their teenage years the determination to succeed in what we already knew was a difficult place to break into.

Some of us got weeded out early. We were too fat, too tall, too ungainly, too untalented, too something which the teachers knew from the start would disqualify us, and they told us or our parents not to waste our time and their money. We were the lucky ones. There are many of the other kind of teachers who go on encouraging unsuitable students to continue into almost inevitable heartbreak.

The kids who get through this stage are, by this time, 14 or 15. If their determination, and their parents’ money, holds up, the next major step is to be accepted at a school attached to a major ballet company – The Royal Ballet, New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet or one of the others (there are very few) – as only with that kind of advanced training can a talented youngster hope to succeed in this competitive world and become a professional ballet dancer.

This is a heartwarming and heartbreaking documentary following three young ballet students as they confront the next big hurdle in their careers, trying out for the School of the San Francisco Ballet.

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