Friday Film Club: Black Swan (2010)
Black Swan Movie
By Veronica Viccora
6.22.23
It's a month of FORGIVENESS here on the Slipper Edit! And today we're looking at a ballet movie that explores this topic in a very interesting way.
Thursday mornings are just special. It's almost the weekend, which means upon waking up (in my cutest jammies), my mind already begins to dream about the ways I'll savor the next few days. One of my all-time favorite ways to spend a Friday evening, is cozied up on the couch with a good movie and, if things are getting REALLY wild, perhaps...
a homemade cookie.
(I know. Please don't tell my parents. They'd be so disappointed in my horrible behavior.)
And while cozy is not exactly the word to describe the movie I'm suggesting today, it's definitely a ballet classic.
Okay, so you've probably already seen the Black Swan movie. It's a cult favorite among ballet lovers so I know it's not a groundbreaking suggestion by any means. But being that this month has been all about forgiveness here on The Slipper Edit, this movie has been on my mind so much and I knew I had to share.
For anyone who hasn't seen it, a simplified explanation of the movie is: main character Nina Sayers, a ballerina, slowly descends into perfectionism induced madness.
The perfection that ballet demands in so many ways is in part what lends to the beauty of the sport. But when gone unchecked, it's also a huge source of trauma that few are not touched by in the ballet community.
Black Swan is a beautiful, fascinating film with fabulous costume design and a heart wrenching story. And while it's certainly not a 100% accurate depiction of what the world of ballet is actually like, it's an excellent metaphor for what happens to those of us that get lost in toxic perfectionism.
This is not a movie to aspire to, but rather a cautionary tale of why it is SO important for us all to continuously work on our relationship to ourselves while working to improve our craft.
Perhaps, there was another world in which Nina may have been able to forgive herself for her imperfections and found joy in dancing again. Perhaps her story could've ended differently.
The truth is, as a fictional character, Nina's story is already written. But yours is being written everyday by you.
So what story will you tell?
I get it, forgiveness can be pretty challenging sometimes, especially as dancers. We're constantly receiving messages about why we aren't enough. But whose definition of enough are we using? When did we lose sight of what enough means to us? If you've been struggling with personal forgiveness and never feeling good enough, check out this post I hope it helps<3
