Film Movement presents
The NY Premiere of Beadie Finzi Brazilian feature film
Only When I Dance
“A real life Billy Elliot!”
Jane Rosenthal, Tribeca Film Festival
“Inspirational!”
Stephen Holden, The New York Times
“An unforgettable experience… Only the hardest of hearts could fail to be moved by this tremendously warm-hearted, yet clear-sighted documentary.”
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
Official Competition Official Selection
TRIBECA EDINBURGH
Film Festival Int'l Film Festival
This feel-good documentary follows Irlan and Isabela, two teenagers from the violent favelas of Rio de Janeiro, as they pursue their dreams of becoming professional ballet dancers. This inspiring story takes us from Rio - where their communities must raise the funds to support their ambitions - to exhilarating ballet competitions in New York and Switzerland. It's a film about their determination to dance, and the price one must pay for talent, ambition and success.
Irlan Silva, the central subject of the film, is currently touring the country with ABT II (the junior company of American Ballet Theater), and is expected to advance to a prominent position in the main company in the coming years.
Join Us For Exclusive New York Engagement
Friday, July 2nd
Cinema Village
22 East 12 Street / 212.924.3363
http://www.cinemavillage.com/
Showtimes:
1:00, 2:40, 6:25, 8:05
Inspiration Through Movement
by MIKE HALE
Joining
“Dancing Across Borders” and
“Mao’s Last Dancer” in the category of inspirational international dance films is Beadie Finzi’s
“Only When I Dance,” which tracks the progress of two students with professional aspirations at the
Centro de Dança ballet school in Rio de Janeiro. Casting is the key here, and Ms. Finzi chose wisely: Irlan Santos de Silva and Isabela Coracy, teenagers when the film was made, leap off the screen as effortlessly as they fly through the air onstage. Mr. Santos de Silva is particularly mesmerizing, as a dancer and a personality; there’s not much suspense regarding whether he will land a spot with a major ballet company. The film is also more clear-eyed than this microgenre demands, with a minimum of manufactured sentiment and gauzy performance footage. In this it matches the personality of its third protagonist, Mariza Estrella, the school’s tough-minded founder.
On the other hand, the emotional deck has been stacked to some extent. The two dancers were chosen from the school’s hundreds of students not only for their promise but because they lived in the favelas, Rio’s notorious slums, and faced extra challenges of class and race.
There’s nothing wrong with that as a story line, but the lack of information about the school, or about any aspect of the two dancers’ lives that doesn’t involve training for and competing in international competitions, can be startling. When another Centro de Dança student, a petite woman, is a winner at the prestigious Prix de Lausanne, we’re stunned. We didn’t even know she was there.
ONLY WHEN I DANCE
Opens on Friday in Manhattan.
Directed by Beadie Finzi; directors of photography, Ms. Finzi and Felipe Reinheimer; edited by Felipe Lacerda and Alan Levy; music by Stephen Hilton; produced by Giorgia Lo Savio and Nikki Parrott; released by Film Movement. At the Cinema Village, 22 East 12th Street, Greenwich Village. In Portuguese, with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 18 minutes. This film is not rated.
