Hi, I wonder if someone has seen the swedish ballet movie the dancer?
I have orderd it online at dvdboxoffice becasue it´s impossible to buy it in Sweden,
has anyone seen it? If so what do you think of it?
Now i have discoverd a second movie it´s called Premiärdansösen(principal dancer)
a documentary about Swedish principal dancer Marie Lindqvist. The However the movie is very difficult to buy and i´m not sure if it´s been released but it came out in 2001 so it should have been released
I have e-mailed the producer of the movie, hopefully i´ll get an answer back:)

I have "The Dancer". I love the footage of the star of the movie, Katja Björner, but am frustrated by the way some of it was filmed. The filmmaker seems to be pursuing her own interest of trying artsy effects, so what we, the viewers, see is closeups of whirling hair instead of the dynamic turns à la seconde being performed, or extreme closeups of feet and legs in various stages of warmup before class, which, while occasionally interesting to see, can become too much too quickly. There were so many times I wanted to stay the videographer's camera so I could see more of Björner and the other dancers, but she wanted to move on to something less interesting to me. Being that the filmaker is also a choreographer, I would have expected more sensitivity to the balletomane's needs. Maybe she knew she had to appeal to a wider audience in order to sell the film?

The film has a wonderful (if overly long) sequence of the making of pointe shoes. That whole section could stand alone as a documentary. It is intensive and beautiful and would answer anyone's questions about how pointe shoes are made. As a separate unit, I love it.

There is also a great section where the Bolshoi's Valentina Savina coaches Björner. A gem of a film clip!

Katja Björner is such a lovely, strong dancer. I'm surprised she has never made principal.

Marga and Rosie,
I am going to answer you together.
First Rosie, well, have you tried to phone the SVT (Swedish Television)? They do sell copies as I believe they made the films in the first place. They have a special department for the sale of copies and before they used to be quite exhorbitant about it. Now I do not know. But if you really know how to talk they might send you a copy for free. Good luck!
Marga, the choreographer and film maker was I am almost certain, the American Donya Feuer, she has worked a lot in Sweden and Norway. She was also responsible for the choreography of Bergman's "The magic flute" (which is the only Bergman work I like. Sorry about that, I hear people rustling their hatchets ready to do me in for saying such a thing).
Dont really know what has happened to Katja Björner, she was full of promise then. One could always check on the webpage of Stockholm Royal Opera House.

None of these productions would be of a commercial interest in Sweden at any rate, so it would be a waste of time looking for them in stores. Producer or SVT direct would be best bets.

Hi Pamela,
I know the film was a project of Donna Feuer. She danced with Martha Graham and worked with Paul Sanasardo. That's why I expected more from her!
Katja Björner has been a soloist with the Royal Swedish Ballet for many years.

"The Dancer" [Dansaren] is a beautiful film that, for me evokes, some of the mystery of ballet.

Although I understand your criticism, Marga, I feel that this film was created as a work of art. There is much about the reality of what it means to be a ballet dancer but Feuer has also tried to express the intangible. As Rick Whitaker writes in his review "The style of the film is lyric-documentary." and "The Dancer is a film of breathtaking chaos, ordered and shaped by Feuer's musical, choreogaphic imagination." (Dance Magazine, Dec, 1995)

There are also clips of the ballerina, Anneli Alhanko. And, although nothing to do with ballet, I enjoyed Erland Josephson's role in the film. He is an actor I like very much.

This film can be rented from Netflix.

The film is available for $18.71 at First Run Features http://www.firstrunfeatures.com/dancerdvd.html