High Strung

High Strung, the movie that opened nationwide yesterday starring the former Mariinsky dancer Keenan Kampa, an American, and  Nicholas Galitzine (The Beat Beneath My Feet – 2014), was a pleasant surprise. No violence, no blood, no one gets slapped or shot, no guns, no gratuitous nudity, no nudity at all, no vulgar profanity, no drug use portrayed (possibly some under-age drinking portrayed but it’s unclear), no disrespect by students of their teachers or other adult authorities including parents, no accidental deaths, no abuse of animals.

Okay, you can stop the squinty faces and nose wrinkling like you’re staring at a plate of cold mashed potatoes. High Strung is a PG13 movie that is loaded with dance: hip-hop, break, tango, Irish step, contemporary, and ballet. Its themes include the honesty of hard work, wrestling with the challenges of not being the best in your field or even having what you need to be the best, supporting one another, rising above unkindness and unfortunate circumstances, cooperation among diverse groups, and using ingenuity as opposed to whining and feigned victimization to earn what you want. Emphasize earn.

Keenan Kampa plays Ruby, a new student at a Manhattan conservatory – a Juilliard type of institution that instructs talented tykes through college aged students. She excels in ballet but lags behind in the contemporary dance classes and is eventually put on probationary “review” by the director, Madame Markova. While the film includes the customary statement in fine print that all the characters are fictional and not intended to portray real life individuals, it nevertheless casts an elderly, adorably tough Russian as the Pas de Deux teacher, Kramarevsky. The producers may have used a variant spelling but, well, you know, we “got" it.

Nicholas Galitzine, as Johnnie, is a talented British violinist in New York without a green card who plays on the subway platform for tips while living in a tragically unpreserved apartment building somewhere around the A-train’s Dyckman Street stop in Inwood. The two first connect in the subway when she drops a big tip in his violin case. When he suffers multiple instances of misfortune, she figures out a plan to help him, and their romance blossoms.

The plot is easy to follow and while the ballet choreography isn’t theater-worthy, there is one impressive adaptation of the Swan Lake Cygnets dancing in boots on a bar table that gives the immaculate Petipa phrases a flavor of Irish step dancing.

Supporting actors Jane Seymour (the contemporary ballet teacher; also a producer of the film) and Paul Freeman (the adorably tough PdD teacher; previously of Raiders of the Lost Ark and much more) had mixed success in their roles. Mr. Freeman skillfully brought off a few moments of partnering Kampa during which he wanted her to stop thinking about the steps, and instead, think about being a gypsy.

Kampa registered well on film. Her acting skills seem far beyond the ballerina acting skills that we observed in The Turning Point (1977) and Dancers (1987), which may not actually be saying much since those performances were so painfully dreadful. But she can deliver lines and emotion in a way that gives them authenticity. Galitzine, who had to learn to fake playing the violin for his role, is also convincing with his remote moodiness shading his enormous talent.

In a recent interview with the National Catholic Register, Kampa explained that she had taken a leave from the Mariinsky to have hip surgery in Colorado but intended to return after rehab. While recovering, she got a Tweet from the producers who had seen her in an NBC TV special during the Sochi Olympics and were convinced that she was right for the part. After several months of rehab, she was able to perform for the film. No word on what her future plans are.

From the National Catholic Register interview:

Just as the Catholic faith informs the [producers] Damians’ work, Kampa relies on it to guide this new phase of her career: “The more you’re surrounded by this industry and what’s going on and what you see in movies and magazines, you become more and more used to seeing things [that aren’t edifying] so that they’re not as shocking. So I always have to evaluate everything that comes my way.” Knowing she has young girls following her on Instagram, she said, makes her ask herself, “What do I want these girls to see?”

Another thought that influences her is: “If it’s not something beautiful or something I want God to walk with me in, it’s just not worth it.”

Kampa tries to get to Mass daily and Eucharistic adoration regularly, keeping a journal in which she records her personal and professional questions and heeds the advice of her mother, Kate: “Whenever you have a problem, just put it on our Blessed Mother’s lap, and she’ll take care of it for you.”

One doesn’t need to commit to religion to find Kampa’s sense of responsibility to her minor age fans refreshing as cool water to a parched throat. Compare her sense of maturity to the ballyhooed dancer at ABT who uses her Instagram account to peddle her own meat instead of her artistry and irresponsibly disregards the influence on her young fans.

The very tall, blond, leggy, lean Kampa finished her Vaganova training in St. Petersburg and joined the Boston Ballet. She was subsequently wooed away by the Mariinsky director and accepted a corps position. It is nearly unanimous that the director pushed her into high profile soloist parts too quickly when she didn’t yet have the Vaganova sterling finish that the Mariinsky followers thought she should have. After a couple of years, she found herself in the position of requiring hip surgery.

So what will become of her ballet career? If her hip allows, let’s hope that she finds a company that will exploit the fine training and coaching she received while at the Vaganova school and in the Mariinsky corps. We could think of a couple.