I think my favorite things to check out from the library are things about food. Cookbooks, chef memoirs, crazy movies like Chef or Burnt, I usually enjoy them all – which you know if you’ve been around this blog for more than 5 minutes because I write about them a lot. (Yes, I’m aware of this and am working on my addiction…but it’s a process.)
Now my second favorite items to check out are movies about ballet. I have found a few books here and there that have tickled my fancy, but usually it’s the films that I really enjoy. Probably because ballet is such a visual medium and that simply translates better to movies. 
So when I saw there was a new ballet movie out I was totally stoked*. I wasn’t really exposed to ballet until I went to college.  For those of you who don’t know, I went to IU’s Music School, so naturally some of my friends were in the ballet program. This means that I’m not the most knowledgeable about the discipline, but I do find it fascinating to watch. I think this is because my body has not, and in all likelihood, will not EVER move like that.
Anyway, Dancer is a documentary that depicts the life of Ukrainian wunderkind, Sergei Polunin. He became the youngest principle dancer in London’s Royal Ballet at the age of 19, but then he just walked away from it all. You may have heard of him if you saw the video where he danced to Hozier’s “Take Me to Church.” I hadn’t seen it before, but it is shown in its entirety in the film and I must say it was very moving. He's also pretty nice to look at - wink wink.
Polunin had a lot of family issues growing up, but his dancing skills are almost indescribable. He jumps higher than everybody else, spins longer, and yet he is so smooth and so in control. I just wanted to keep watching him and watching him dance. Polunin toyed with leaving ballet completely, but according to his Wiki page, he is still dancing in Russia at the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Academic Music Theatre, which makes me happy because anyone with this much talent should not let it go to waste.
Happy Dancing/ Ogling…
:) Amanda
*Um…does anyone even use this word anymore? I’ve kind of lost touch with what the kids are saying these days, but stoked is how I felt, so stoked is what I wrote. Do with it what you will.