Petite Ballerine, a short documentary about ballet. ‘’Petite Ballerine’’ is a ballet documentary that tells the story of Leda, a 16 year old girl in love with ballet and whose dream is to become a prima ballerina. After completing the secondary ballet school in Zagreb she was admitted to the Academy of Classical Ballet in Stuttgart where she will continue her ballet education.
Her story has inspired a number of friends and colleagues who have decided to make the first Croatian ballet documentary. In addition, they decided to seek help from the community through Indiegogo, a popular crowdfunding platform, so they could tell Leda’s ballet story just how they imagined it, inspiring both visually and narratively.
This ballet journey began when Renata Simic, Matej Duzel, Ivan Granic, Nino Maric and Bruno Gudelj met Leda. She showed them what it means to be a ballerina and how important ballet is for her. They immediately fell in love with this whole new world they discovered.
Part of Leda’s story is told by Ms. Mihaela Devald, who is her mentor and the former first soloist and principal dancer in the Croatian National Theatre. Ms. Devald dedicated her entire life to ballet and today she is focuses on the education of young ballerinas.
Along Ms. Devald the film also features mr. Milko Sparemblek, a ballet dancer who was part of the golden generation of ballet dancers from the 1950’s. Mr. Milko was a ballet master in the Ballet du XXe Siecle Maurice Béjart in Brussels, and the director of Metropolitan Ballet Opera in New York. He is also a choreographer with more than 150 ballets and operas attached to his name.
The film was made entirely in Zagreb at locations such as the Croatian National Theatre and the Academy of Dramatic Arts.
To complete the film in the way the young filmmakers envisioned they need help. So far, everything was self budgeted. The filmmakers invested only their own money, time, ideas and equipment. Unfortunately they lack a bit of resources at the very end of their ballet journey. That is why they decided on creating an Indiegogo campaign. This type of financing is not common in Croatia, at least not when it comes to films, and especially ballet films.
We invite you to learn more about the story on their Indiegogo campaign. You can also check out their Facebook , Twitter and Tumblr to see some great ballet content.
