Review: 'Joy Womack - The White Swan' Showcases Triumphal Artistry

The opening scenes "The White Swan" are of ballerina Joy Womack backstage, minutes before she fulfills her lifelong goal of dancing the lead in "Swan Lake" in Russia. From there, the film flashes back to document her relentless willpower that got her there.

Filmmakers Dina Burlis and Sergey Gavrilov bring Joy Womack's remarkable story to the screen in a film that boasts a boldly innovative cinematic style for a dance documentary. Even rarer, the filmmakers were able to penetrate the guarded and insular world of Russian ballet, and show us the good, the bad, and the gilded ugly.

Joy Womack was the first American ballerina to become a member of revered Bolshoi Ballet after training from age 15 at the Bolshoi School, living in Moscow, and learning to speak Russian. Womack adapted to the strict technical requirements and the specificity of the Bolshoi aesthetic.

At a crucial point in the beginning of her professional career, Womack sustained a major injury – a broken foot – during a performance. Her parents told her they couldn't afford to send her the money for the necessary surgery. She overcame these setbacks, but also found out that she wouldn't be able to remain in Russia on her own; she could only obtain a "Russian residency permit" if she got married.

She quickly married a dance partner named Nikita Goncharov. At the beginning of their relationship, they had terrific chemistry onstage and off.

The camera follows them in their apartment, working together in the studio and at class. These scenes are admirable for their non-exploitive verité quality, as they profile this troubled relationship. But the marriage doesn't last, and the couple is honest with each other about wanting different things. Joy is particularly frank about what she went through for the ballet, admitting that she "put myself through such hell psychologically." Among other things, "I was so bulimic and anorexic."

However strained their marriage was becoming, Womack acknowledges her dependency on the emotional support Nikita gives her, while owning up to the fact that that she is not ready to be committed to family life. "The ballet was her husband," Nikita says with sadness.

Womack articulates the many issues facing ballerinas at in the post-Soviet era ballet, and the extra sociopolitical aspect of dance in Russia also is a reality she had to navigate, including anti-American sentiments in the ballet world.

When Womack became a Bolshoi dancer, she was frustrated that she was not getting the roles that she thought she would get – but the way of the Bolshoi system is to make everyone the start at the bottom rung. When she found out that she could get principal roles by paying $10,000 to get cast in a soloist role, she refused, and it became a public scandal. She explains that, "The scandal that happened at Bolshoi burned bridges," and "my self-confidence was shattered."

She quit the Bolshoi and becomes a member, along with her former husband, of the less-rigid Kremlin Ballet, where she danced prima ballerina roles for three years before moving on to other stages around the world.

Burlis and Gavrilov capture the tense atmospherics of life in Russia, and also the gorgeous city of Moscow as Womack discovers the city. The scenes of her on stage and in the studio are equally compelling. The beautiful scenes of Womack performing in Russian classics (including Odette/Odile in "Swan Lake") comprise the film's finale, and capture Womack's bittersweet and triumphal artistry.

"'Joy Womack - The White Swan" premieres in select theaters and via virtual cinema, VOD & Digital on Dec. 10.