The documentary First Position,
directed by Bess Kargman, follows the stories of six ballet dancers as they
make their way though the Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP) competition. Aran
Bell, an 11-year-old living in Italy (his father is a military doctor), travels
hours to his ballet classes. He is very passionate, and very talented for his
age. He is very close friends with Gaya Yemini, an 11-year-old from Israel,
even though they do not speak the same language and are constantly competing
with each other. Michaela DePrince (14) was adopted from Sierra Leon after
rebels killed her parents. She lives in Philadelphia, and hopes to overcome the
stereotype that African-American dancers cannot make in the ballet world. Rebecca
Houseknecht is a 17-year-old graduate from Arundel High School and attended the
Maryland Youth Ballet (which, coincidentally, I attended for seven years, until
the end of 7th grade). Seeing Rebecca in a famous documentary, after
seeing her on a regular basis at the studio a few years ago was really cool and
made this film much more personal. After her participation in YAGP, Rebecca
joined the Washington Ballet (which she has since left to study at Towson
University). Miko Fogarty (12) lives in Palo Alto, CA and hopes one day to
become a professional ballet dancer. Miko is incredibly strong and flexible,
and has a lot of support from her mother. Her mother also makes her brother do
ballet, but he does not share the passion or commitment to dance that Miko
exhibits. Joan Sebastian Zamora is a 16-year-old from Colombia. He lives in
Queens, New York, ands works to support his family that still lives in
Colombia. Joan Sebastian receives a full scholarship from the Royal Ballet
School in London for is outstanding performance in YAGP.
Bess Kargman does a very good job
developing the backstories of each of the characters, and therefore creating an
interesting plot for viewers to follow. The viewer has a better understanding
of each character during the competition after learning about their lives in detail.
The costumes are, of course, very nice ballet costumes, and the narration
really adds to the movie’s effect. All of the films shots are very nice, and
there are a variety of different shots. There are many extreme close-ups of the
dancers’ feet on pointe. Instead of just having the one wide shot of the dancer
from the audience, there are close-ups and medium close-ups during performances
to grasp the viewer’s attention. It must have been very difficult to get these
close-ups, and they are all of very high quality. There are no special effects,
which is good in my opinion because I think that they would tae away from the documentary.
They would reduce the viewers understanding that everything in the film is
real, and that these people are living the lives described in the documentary.
This documentary was well done and kept my interest, even though it is 90
minutes long. Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a 96%, and IMDB gave it a 7/10.
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