Butler's Cinema Scene

“FIRST POSITION” My rating: B+ (Opening May 25 at the Rio)

90 minutes | No MPAA rating

“First Position” should be filed on your DVD shelf right next to “Spellbound” and “Mad Hot Ballroom,” two other documentaries about youngsters striving for excellence.

Like those pictures, Bess Kargman’s debut feature offers a compelling competitive situation, adorable young subjects and plenty of insights into an arcane world most of us know little about.

The kids ages 9 to 17 featured here are dancers preparing for the Youth America Grand Prix, which invites the best young dancers from all over the planet to compete.

Since the event is attended by representatives of the world’s best dance companies, it also serves as a showcase. A promising youngster may leave with an internship to study under the greats of the art form.

Gaya and Aran

Kargman’s subjects are a diverse and intriguing lot.

Aran is the 11-year-old son of an American sailor stationed in Italy.  His close friend Gaya  is from Israel.

Teenaged Rebecca is a beautiful blond goddess. Joan Sebastian is an impossibly handsome young man who left his family in Colombia to study in New York.

Miko and Jules are siblings, but only one of them has the will and the talent to make it to the top.

Michaela is a 15-year-old orphaned in a civil war in her native Sierra Leone and adopted by an American couple.

Kargman’s film follows the standard format for enterprises of this sort, beginning with the kids training in their various home countries, then following them to New York.

But along the way she generates a real sense of the sacrifices of these youngsters and their families. Bleeding feet, countless dollars spent on costumes and equipment (Michaela wears out an $80 pair of shoes every day), near constant pain, injuries…there’s an element of madness in their devotion to dance.

But when we see them on the stage, defying gravity and exhibiting a grace way beyond their tender years…well, then you understand.

| Robert W. Butler