Dramatic Steps to Tell ‘An American Ballet Story’ No One Knows (Movie Review)

An American Ballet Story

Rating: 7/10

Director and Writer: Leslie Streit

Style: Documentary

Time: 94 minutes

Trailer: vimeo.com/672952777

Review by Mike Szymanski

Even if you are a dance aficionado you may not have heard of Harkness Ballet. Even if you are — or were — a professional dancer (and I know more than just a few) you probably never heard of Rebekah Harkness, who founded that ballet company.

But you have heard of the people she worked with, the people she employed, and the dancers she coached.

That’s the point of this in-depth documentary “An American Ballet Story.” Although the overall point of the film is a bit out of focus like many of the archival dance clips, and although the piece seems to allow some of the interviewees to ramble on into seeming infinity, this is a documentary about a woman who loved the arts, did some groundbreaking things in the arts, and was ultimately dashed and hampered by her own ego and feeling of…