The simplicity of the short is dazzling: A woman alone in a dance studio - lights flicker - something very wrong manifests - and then it gets even more wrong.
Star Valeska Miller carries wonderful grace and charisma in her poise, let alone in the poetry of her fluid, seemingly effortless movement. The nuance of expression she brings to 'The ballerina' is gratifying, and I immediately want to see her in more films. For that matter, commendations as well to choreographer Amanda MacLeod, whose oversight of Miller's motions has led to a marvelous spectacle for our eyes.
I love the music - quiet and sparing, yet aptly disquieting and tense. I appreciate the uncomplicated progression of the narrative, that without any need for dialogue becomes quickly, acutely hair-raising - before turning bemusing, and remaining so during the credits, after the stark imagery of the climax elevates the cringe factor once more.
There's something to be said for how the story, like too many other horror features, requires the protagonist to discard common sense, or self-preservation, for the sake of curiosity. And the bluntly unreal visualization of the final jarring twist is a bit too tawdry for my tastes. Yet otherwise 'The ballerina' is so very well done - lovely and refined, counterbalanced with the odd and alarming - that I can forgive these faults as a necessity for the tale at hand.
Clocking in at just under eight minutes, this is a weirdly mesmerizing short. That's in no small part just for the opportunity to watch Miller realize MacLeod's choreography, but film-maker Aaron Fradkin has concocted an unsettling and bewitching short film that I'm pleased to watch again and again. Cheers!
