The Children of Theatre Street (1977)

Academy Awards, USA 1978

Nominated Oscar

Best Documentary, Features Robert Dornhelm Earle Mack

Peppercorn-Wormser Film Enterprises
Directed by Robert Dornhelm and Earle Mack
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Kultur)

Children are rounded up at a prestigious Russian ballet school and chosen for enrollment based primarily on their physical attributes. We see several students at various stages in their training: pre-teens taking their first steps, teenagers coming into their own and the older students preparing for their debuts at the famous Kirov Ballet (now Mariinsky Ballet) in St. Petersburg. Occasionally we get glimpses of "normal" teenagers, pillow fights, whispering in the dorms, but for the most part they have given up their childhoods for this privileged life. However, they don't seem to mind, and the locals are rabid balletomanes. The final performance is nerve-racking for the students, but exhilarating to watch.