These Ballet Movies Will Keep You on Your Toes
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Nutcracker season (a.k.a. December) doesn't have to be the only time you think about tutus and point shoes. Ballet can be enjoyed all year round, and these movies from Black Swan to Step Up can help bring pirouettes into your life and show you what it's really like to be a ballerina. Besides, ballet dancers would probably want you to know that Tchaikovsky isn't the only composer who gets their toes tingling.
There are also some great ballet television shows out there: Bunheads, Flesh and Bone, and Tiny Pretty Things to name a few. (Speaking of Bunheads, Amy Sherman-Palladino is working on a new ballet series called Étoile starring Charlotte Gainsbourg and Luke Kirby and I will be sat.) But for now, let's focus on the movies. There are a lot of great ones!
Ballet movies tend to be a little more intense than other dance movies because ballet itself is intense! Not that it's necessarily harder or better than other styles of dance, but the precision and athleticism required leads to unique challenges and brutal competition. Because of that, I think, there are some really excellent horror/thriller movies about ballet–including the 2024 movie Abigail about a vampire ballerina. Okay, without further ado!
Center Stage (2000)
If you thought your high school was competitive, imagine if you went to school at the (fictional) American Ballet Academy. The film follows three students who couldn't be more different. Do they have what it takes to succeed in the world of professional ballet? And if they do, is it worth what they're sacrificing? The highs and lows are epic, and the final dance is to die for.
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Black Swan (2010)
Art requires obsession, and obsession can make artists go a little crazy sometimes. This thriller set during the rehearsal process of a production of Swan Laketakes every dark thing you've heard about what it's really like to be a ballet dancer (eating disorders, bloody toe shoes, etc.) and turns it up to the highest setting.
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The Red Shoes (1948)
This classic film is based on a Hans Christian Anderson story. It's about a young dancer who falls in love with a composer and is forced to choose between romance and her burgeoning career.
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Billy Elliott (2000)
In Jamie Bell's first film role, he played a boy who discovers a passion for ballet in the 1980s while his community is torn apart by a labor dispute. His father and brother, both miners, are on strike. While the community is supportive of the union, government interference and economic hardships fill Billy's world with adversity. He's got plenty to dance about!
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High Strung (2016)
Did you know that Nicholas Galitzine (Red White and Royal Blue, Bottoms) was in a movie about the relationship between a ballet student and a violin student at a competitive conservatory? You're welcome! The film also stars Keenan Kampa and Sonoya Mizuno (House of the Dragons, Crazy Rich Asians), who were both professional ballet dancers!
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Ballet Shoes
Baby Emma Watson! This young adult movie is about three orphans who are enrolled in a performing arts school and try to follow their dreams despite not really fitting in and the pressure to make money for their new family during the Great Depression.
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First Position (2011)
This documentary follows competitive ballet dancers preparing for the Youth America Grand Prix. If you want to know what ballet is really like, especially for kids, check this out!
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Suspiria (1977)
Luca Guadanigno's 2018 remake starring Dakota Johnson and Mia Goth has more dancing; but it's contemporary, not ballet! Only the original horror movie features ballet specifically.
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Summer Interlude (1951)
In this Ingmar Bergman film, a ballerina runs away to be wth a childhood love. The ballet she runs from is Swan Lake, the same piece that causes all the trouble in Black Swan. Is that, like, the Macbeth of ballet or something? Is it cursed?
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Step Up (2006)
The first film in this street dancing franchise pairs Channing Tatum's lovable dirtbag Tyler with a ballet student named Nora (Jenna Dewan). He learns from her. She learns from him. It's beautiful!
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Save The Last Dance (2001)
And of course, we can't talk about romance between ballet dancers and stream dancers without bringing up the Julia Stiles and Sean Patrick Thomas classic.
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Mao's Last Dancer (2009)
This film is based on the true story of Li Cunxin, who was taken from his family as a young age to become a trained ballet dancer in Communist China during Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution. When Li goes to Texas as an exchange student, everything changes.
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