Home | Movies By Year | Movies from 2001
Dying to Dance (2001 film)
Buy Dying to Dance (2001 film) now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the movie. And once you've experienced the movie, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
'Dying to Dance' (sold in the province of Quebec as "Le Prix De La Perfection") is a 2001 Canadian-American made-for-television film featuring the story of an apprentice ballerina who develops bulimia and habits of self-starvation in order to meet the rigorous standards of the elite dance company she has been accepted to. The film was made in Ontario, Canada and stars Mary-Margaret Humes, Kimberly McCullough, Natalija Nogulich, Mimi Kuzyk, Dominic Zamprogna, Rick Springfield and Les Porter as the main characters.
Plot
Alyssa Lennox, a young woman, has been accepted (much to the chagrin of her parents, who wanted her to attend university) to the Metropolitan Ballet Company, an elite dance academy with extremely rigorous physical standards for its members, including new apprentice ballerinas. Alyssa is humiliated on her first day for being late, with company manager Michael Gregory mocking her and suggesting that she will most likely drop out of the school since she apparently doesn't care enough about being there on time. Alyssa is further embarrassed during a rehearsal and weigh-in when she fails to "pull up" her lower stomach during a dance move, which makes her look bloated. Ukrainian expat and former prima ballerina Ms. Verchenko suggests to Alyssa that she lose a few pounds, but recommends that she be very careful not to go too far, and to seek medical advice before dieting. Michael Gregory, in turn, is much ruder to Alyssa, and argues that she should lose a great deal of weight if she wants to be a serious dancer. Later that week, Jillian, Metropolitan's most famous current ballerina, dies of heart failure in the midst of a rehearsal dance, which Michael Gregory initially believes is just her being lazy and not wanting to go through with the routine. He later attempts to counsel the other ballerinas at Metropolitan, urging them to quickly move on rather than grieve the loss.
Alyssa and her mother (Helene Lennox, an amateur sculptor) go to Jillian's funeral, where Jillian's mother, Kathleen, confides in Helene that she was a former ballerina herself and may have pushed Jillian too far to succeed. As time goes on, Alyssa moves from her parents' family home to some low-rent apartments closer to Metropolitan to avoid longer commute times. With no parental guidance or supervision, Alyssa quickly falls into various tricks of the trade at the ballet school to be thin, including self-starvation, hiding drastic weight loss by taping rolled-up coins under her hair, street drugs and self-induced vomiting. At one point, Alyssa and her boyfriend Zack, a fellow dancer, are nearly caught by the police buying drugs. Alyssa breaks up with Zack when she discovers him in a hot tub with another girl. Between Zack's apparent infidelity and increasingly harsh comments from Michael Gregory, Alyssa's only guidance comes from Ms. Verchenko, who suspects that Alyssa has an eating disorder and is hiding it. Without proof, she can't force Alyssa to take any time off from Metropolitan. Alyssa becomes gradually weaker, eventually fainting and crashing her car into a telephone pole, after which she is taken to the hospital and her parents confront her. She is given no recovery time at Metropolitan, and is made to leave the school. Ms. Verchenko is furious at this, and reveals that she herself suffers from osteoporosis and internal organ damage that ruined her own dancing career after she fell into the same behaviours as Alyssa in her youth. Michael Gregory is surprised by Ms. Verchenko's disobedience, but unfazed.
Alyssa's parents obtain the keys to her apartment in order to clean the place out for the next tenant. There, they find disturbing paraphernalia including plush figurines of anthropomorphic pigs dressed up in ballet tutus, and comments with fatphobic slurs in them painted in lipstick on Alyssa's closet mirror, apparently by Alyssa herself, as a makeshift shrine to weight loss inspiration. Alyssa, meanwhile, is forced to attend an eating disorder clinic, where she learns that her own therapist once suffered from an eating disorder herself years prior. This convinces Alyssa that positive change and recovery are possible. Helene goes to visit Kathleen, who reveals that she wishes she could hold Metropolitan accountable for its harsh treatment of its dancers. Kathleen and Helene take legal action against the academy, with the help of Ms. Verchenko and Dave Lennox, Alyssa's father. Alyssa, still unable to dance due to health complications, is permitted to return to Metropolitan for its annual public dance performance, where she and Ms. Verchenko give a speech about eating disorders, dedicating the performance to Jillian and the earned monetary proceeds to an eating disorder charity. Michael Gregory observes, annoyed and ashamed, as the ballet performance (an unnamed jungle-themed story) opens for the first time that year.
Cast
* Mary-Margaret Humes as Helene Lennox
* Kimberly McCullough as Alyssa Lennox
* Natalija Nogulich as Ms. Verchenko
* Mimi Kuzyk as Kathleen Monroe
* Dominic Zamprogna as Zack
* Rick Springfield as Dave Lennox
* Les Porter as Michael Gregory
* Jocelyn Snowdon as Jillian Monroe
* Nicole Lyn as Torri
* Aaron Ashmore as Jason
* Kirstin Rae Hinton as Golda
* Stephanie Anne Mills as Pauline
Reception
'Dying to Dance' was initially praised and drew attention upon its release for casting Rick Springfield, better-known as the singer of hits "Jessie's Girl" and "Walking on the Edge", in an unconventional father figure role for the main character Alyssa. Sophie Gilbert of 'The Atlantic' considered 'Dying to Dance' as problematic and insignificant among numerous other similar eating disorder-themed films, comparing it to the conventions also found in films such as 'Perfect Body' (1997) and 'When Friendship Kills' (1996). The film was mainly notable for its cast of A-list actors and Canadian actors.
References
Buy Dying to Dance (2001 film) now from Amazon
<-- Return to movies from 2001