A Film by Michal Kesten-Keidar
(Israel, 2005, 53 Minutes, Color, Hebrew, English subtitles)



Following the struggle of two aspiring young dancers, this is a story of the distance between childhood dreams and growing up, and having to face the reality in which we live as well as the body in which we live. Two young girls, fighting their own bodies and the Israeli army, realize that dreams are not enough. To be a ballerina you need a perfect body and a perfect life.

In an old and poor neighborhood in the dusty town Beer-Sheva, ”The Municipal Center for the Art of Dance – Bat-Dor Beer Sheva” is one of the best ballet schools in the countr.  It has been active for over 20 years. Many girls who dream of becoming ballerinas start their dance training there at an early age. For them ballet school is a place filled with hopes and frustrations. It is your whole world, until it shuts you out because you’re not good enough, because your body isn’t perfect.

The film’s director, Michal Kesten-Keidar, was one of those girls. This was the place where her dream was formed, and the place where it was shattered.
Now she returns to her childhood dreams, to the pink tutu skirts, the tough drills and the harsh teachers.

The film follows Daniella Shapira, the school’s director, who made Bat-Dor into a kind of “European oasis” in the dusty and sweaty city, and documents the stories of two young girls who dance at the school, fighting to continue dancing in the big world. One has to fight her imperfect body, The other faces her service in the Israeli army and her parents, who don't allow her to escape this duty and continue her dream. This is the story of young girls with big dreams, girls from Beer Sheva, who dream of breaking their way through to the Israeli Opera House in Tel-Aviv, and from there to maybe, conquer the big stages around the world.

AWARDS & FESTIVALS

 DocAviv Festival, Israel 
 Fipatel Film Festival, France


TV SCREENINGS

 Channel 8, Israel