Reality check: Local dancers, ballet directors react to 'Black Swan' film

The ethereal image of a dainty ballerina pirouetting about the stage in a wispy tutu can be highly deceptive, exactly the raison d'etre for the highly acclaimed film "Black Swan," for which star Natalie Portman recently won a Golden Globe Award and probably will get an Oscar nomination this week.

As writer and director Darren Aronofsky focuses behind the scenes of a prestigious New York dance company, we witness ruthless competition and blood gushing from toes, fingers and eyes amid twisted relationships involving a ballet director and a young dancer as well as the dancer and her mother.

Portman, who has been lauded for her over-the-top performance, is not a professional dancer but studied ballet growing up. Prior to making "Black Swan," she practiced her technique for 10 months.

Nevertheless, the most complex footwork was executed by the uncredited American Ballet Theatre dancer Sarah Lane.

So what do local ballerinas and dance company directors think of "Black Swan"?

Jill Eathorne Bahr, resident choreographer of the Charleston Ballet Theatre, says, "Joseph Duell, a former New York City Ballet dancer, jumped out a window" and Alexander Godunov (who performed at the Spoleto Festival USA in 1980), died of alcohol abuse. "Dancers frequently reach a breaking point, even at a semiprofessional or student level," she adds.

Two seasoned dancers with the CBT, Jennifer Muller and Stephanie Bussell, both of whom have danced professionally for nearly 20 years, took a break during rehearsals at the theater's King Street studio to share their thoughts.

"First of all, Natalie's character, Nina, wanted what many dancers want, and that is perfection," says Muller, who grew up studying with the Joffrey Ballet School in New York. "But although your technique may get better through repetition, there is no perfect."

Concerning the sexually explicit and violent fantasy scenes, Muller says, "It obviously was done for shock value to get people who care nothing about ballet into the theaters."

Bussell, a Michigan native who joined the CBT seven years ago, agrees.

But both dancers say the movie contained definite truths.

"The truth is your toes bleed and turn black and blue and you lose your toenails," says Muller. "When it shows Nina repairing her toe shoes, this is exactly what we do; each pair of pointe shoes costs about $90, and I could go through five pairs a week. But that's unaffordable (the CBT buys the shoes), and so I put jet glue on the toes to make them hard, and I sew the torn places. We all do that."

Bussell adds, "The movie also shows you can't just be a dancer. You must be an actor as well, which the artistic director (played by Vincent Cassel) was trying to get Nina to do. She had to make a total change from the white swan (good) to the black swan (deceptive)."

However, neither of the ballerinas thought it was necessary to use the inexperienced, sheltered Nina in a sexual manner, as the film's artistic director did to make her change.

Robert Ivey, artistic director of the Robert Ivey Ballet, says the character reminded him of George Balanchine regarding his attitude toward female dancers.

"In the '50s, when I took class from Balanchine at the School of American School Ballet, he liked his ballerinas very young and very thin, and the girls would do anything to please him. He also had affairs with them, and married several."

Ivey says he could instantly tell when dancer Sarah Lane took over from Portman.

"Natalie did very well with her port de bras," says Ivey. "But when she arched her back and the camera focused on the legs and feet, they were very different from Natalie's."

"It was easy to see when a professional dancer took over, but the editing was superb, and this shouldn't determine whether Natalie gets an Oscar," Bahr notes.

Bahr and Ivey say Barbara Hershey as Nina's stage mother is on target.

"She was a perfect example, and I've seen hundreds of them, living their own ambitions through their daughters," says Bahr.

Ivey explains, "When her mother tries to get Nina to eat some cake, this showed, in a crazy way, she also wants Nina to fail. I've seen some of that here."

Bussell says her parents didn't want her to become a dancer.

"They were afraid I would get hurt, and I've been badly injured twice, and they knew nothing about the ballet world. But they accepted my decision."

Muller, a native New Yorker, says, "My mother was very supportive and sent me to the best ballet schools, but if I had decided on another career, that was fine, too."

Neither Ivey nor Bahr thinks "Black Swan" will keep young girls from wanting to become ballerinas.

As Muller says, "Dancers choose to go through the pain, and for them it is worth it."