Reset

It’s June 2015, and 39 days to go before the premiere of Benjamin Millepied’s first choreography for the Paris Opera. He has just received the composition by Nico Muhly and is trying out the first steps. They days tick relentlessly by. After 20 years as principal dancer with the New York City Ballet, Millepied has been appointed dance director of the revered Parisian institution’s ballet company. For his dance piece , he has selected 16 young dancers. He tells them that technique is just a means of achieving expression and emotion. “Feel free and dance with pleasure.” At times up close and personal, at others fluid and poetic, scrupulouslyfollows the process – from daily rehearsals and sprained feet to the administrative planning and the threat of a strike; from the energy in the dancers’ movements to the concentration in their eyes. In the meantime, Millepied explains that he wants to bring a breath of fresh air to the institution. We experience the passion and inspiration of the creative process – followed by an unexpected denouement in the end credits.