The Red Shoes
Eclectic Edge Ensemble
On Christmas day, after all the food and family, I went to see the movie The Red Shoes with Becky (a fellow EEE dancer) and some of our friends. It was a nighttime showing at the Trylon Microcinema, a great little independent movie theater in south Mpls. I knew the movie was from the 1940's so I was preparing myself to be a little bored, but to my surprise it turned out to be one of the best movies I've ever seen about dance.
The plot revolves around a ballet company, modeled after the Ballet Russe (Leonide Massine is even in the movie). The company is performing and touring the ballet The Red Shoes. The Red Shoes was originally a Hans Christian Andersen fairytale about a girl who dances herself to destruction, and that theme is sort of played out in the life of the prima ballerina in this film. Martin Scorsese has rated it as one of his all time favorites, and so he recently paid to have the film restored. I got to see the restored version, and it's amazing because even though it's from 1948 you can practically see the pores on the actor's faces. I just added it to my netflix queue to watch over again. Check it out!
Katrina Schleisman
