Coming to PBS’s POV next Monday, July 21: DANCE FOR ME
Katrine Philp’s portrait of teenage ballroom dancers made its debut at CPH:DOX in 2012. Since then it has screened at IDFA, Documentary Edge, Full Frame, Raindance, and AmDocs, among others.
Seeking opportunities in the professional dance world of Denmark, fifteen-year-old Egor leaves his native Russia to train and compete with the talented Mie, while also living with the fourteen-year-old and her mother. Despite a shaky start, the pair’s discipline and ambition start to yield results, and they soon find a championship title within their reach. Philp brings a keen eye to this observational coming-of-age profile, perfectly balancing interpersonal drama with dance, and taking a sensitive approach with Egor in particular. While there have been several dance-focused projects in recent years, including excellent fellow Danish doc BALLROOM DANCER, the subjects’ youth here – and Egor’s cultural dislocation – introduces a fresh and palpable vulnerability, perhaps best exemplified in moments caught between child and mother, communicating via Skype, but also in their still inchoate drive for perfection and resultant failures.
what (not) to doc 