Photo Gallery

Dancers do the impossible. And yet we all want to be them. They are that beautiful, that vulnerable, and that expressive. They are the essence of what we mean by ethereal. Their lives, of course, are the same messy stew that we all experience, complete with the complications of families, lovers, friendships, and work.

I want The Company to show this world with all of its contradictions. Here are worldclass artists who, for the most part, are poorly paid and live hand to mouth; often in very
unglamorous conditions. They take immaculate care of their bodies while smoking countless cigarettes, downing endless cups of coffee and working punishing hours. Their daily reality includes bloody feet, bludgeoned ambitions, and the work itself--in all of its demanding beauty.

What thrilled me most about making this film was simply being allowed into this particular tribe of artists, dreamers and human beings. On a daily basis, and in the most impossible and dramatic terms, dancers face what we all face: biological clocks and the force of gravity telling us NO. Yet for some part of their working lives dancers literally prevail over those forces. The fact that they (like the rest of us) will all ultimately be trumped by time doesn’t diminish or compromise their efforts. It only enriches them…..and us.

I am privileged to have been allowed into the world of the dancers of the JOFFREY BALLET and privileged to have the opportunity of sharing it in this film.

-- Robert Altman