Ballerina (Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color episode)

Ballerina is a 1966 telefilm produced by Walt Disney Productions. It was originally broadcast on NBC on February 27, and March 6, 1966. It was later released theatrically overseas during the same year by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The telefilm was directed by Norman Campbell.

Synopsis
Mette Sørenson is a student of the prestigious dance school, the Royal Danish Ballet's dream of becoming a ballerina. Unfortunately, her mother did everything to dissuade him, wishing she lives her life as an ordinary girl.

Ballerina is a television film broadcast on the issuance of the NBC, Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color. In 1961, Walt Disney slams the door of ABC after seven years of loyal service in which he presents the show Disneyland. Refusing to be confined to a genre, he decided, in effect, joining NBC offers him new and great opportunities to develop its nascent expertise in the field of television works. Dad Mickey now has not only a larger budget but also considerable autonomy in the choice of programs where, precisely, ABC imposed on him producing westerns at the Davy Crockett. The transfer of a chain to the other TV productions also offers Disney the benefit of color. Neither one nor two, issue Disneyland turns into logically named Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color, in September 1961.'s one of the first visible consequences of the arrival on NBC is the gradual disappearance of many series episodes ( Texas John Slaughter ...) in favor of telefilms quality, limited to two or three parts ( The Prince and the Pauper , Escapade in Florence ...).

Walt Disney still before the Lord a big fan of classical music. Very quickly, it gives him a place in his work in the image of Fantasia, animation film produced in 1940, ambitious and groundbreaking mixes with happiness, classical music and cartoons. January 30, 1959 to support the release of his new film animation, The Sleeping Beauty, he devotes a sequence of Walt Disney Presents , played by actors entitled The Peter Tchaikovsky Story (The Story of Tchaikovsky) to tell the life of the famous Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. He then took up the idea and the reality, in 1962, in a TV movie in two parts, The Magnificent Rebel (The Life of Beethoven) interested in Ludwig Van Beethoven. A year later, he uses the same format, again for television, with The Waltz King (The War of the Waltz) to tell, this time, the life of Austrian composer. Beyond classical music, he is also interested in such ensuing lyrical song as the viewer arts have seen the film released in theaters in 1962, Almost Angels, or ballet with fiction for television In 1966, Ballerina.

Ballerina is a TV movie that wants Contemporary its release date, ie the mid 60s. It tells the life of a student of the Royal Danish Ballet. Founded in 1748 on the occasion of the inauguration of the Royal Danish Theatre, Den Kongelige Danish Ballet's official name is one of the oldest ballet companies in Europe. During its history it was under the direction of teachers of French and Italian ballet. The film thus depicts a young girl torn between two extremes that prevent it from fully flourish: on one side, his passion for classical dance and the other, his love for his mother who wants away its potential and career sacrifices that come with it. The film puts the television so highlight the difficult lives of young people who go into this kind of artistic professions requiring efforts every moment to develop a mental and a physical reinforced concrete. But beyond the moral, the telefilm not only to touch about speaking only procrastination of his heroine but many distilled extracts of ballets: a process that is no longer possible to apply today ' Today at a prime time, especially for a family audience; ballet is a subject too difficult to follow for today's youth who would give any attention to the program.

The characters bring a lot of freshness and authenticity telefilm. It must be said that the three main roles actually were part of the Royal Danish Ballet. Thus, when they dance, they are actual performance of real professionals who are made to do data viewers spellbound. Mette Sørenson played by Mette Hønnigen displays a candor and vulnerability dancer unsure of herself particularly endearing. Kirsten Simone camp, for its part, sympathetic ballerina Kirsten Holm always ready to help his little protected. Finally, Kronstam Henning, who plays the male star Henning Tanberg, sure of its value, haughty and cold with little news, knows how to be convincing.

Ballerina is a beautiful telefilm requiring its subject, but by focusing his remarks. Knew as a nugget produce Walt Disney's lifetime ...

The TV movie was released in theaters, internationally, since 1966 under the title of Ballerina: A Story of the Royal Danish Ballet.

Cast

 * Mette Hønningen	 ...	Mette Sorensen
 * Kirsten Simone	 ...	Kirsten Holm
 * Astrid Villaume	 ...	Helga Sorensen
 * Poul Reichhardt	 ...	Paul Sorensen
 * Henning Kronstam	 ...	Henning Tanberg
 * Jenny Agutter	 ...	Ingrid Jensen
 * Blandine Ebinger	 ...	Mme. Karova
 * Ole Wegener	 ...	Sven
 * Erik Mørk	 ...	Ballet Master
 * Hans Schwarz Jr.	 ...	Trainer (as Hans Schwarz)
 * Edvin Tiemroth	 ...	Theater Director
 * Walt Disney	 ...	Himself - Host
 * Valsø Holm
 * Bjørn Puggaard-Müller

Credits

 * Produced by
 * Bill Anderson	...	 producer
 * Peter V. Herald	...	 producer
 * Walt Disney	...	 executive producer (uncredited)

Henning Schreiter
 * Music by


 * Cinematography by
 * Günther Anders
 * Rolf Rønne

Henrik Fog-Møller	... assistant camera
 * Camera and Electrical Department


 * Other crew
 * Casey Robinson	...	 idea
 * Peter Schnitzler	...	 idea