Mollie Mills’ enrapturing short film about a Johannesburg ballerina

Date
14 August 2014

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There can be no question that ballet is one of the most enrapturing art forms out there, but I sometimes wonder if the archetypal representation of the dance as graceful, pristine and effortless quite does justice to the physicality of it. How refreshing is it to watch a short film about a ballerina, that doesn’t airbrush over the fingerprints on the mirror, the beads of sweat on the shoulder blades, the tremble of a lip as a dancer exhales?

Mollie Mills is a London-based filmmaker whose name has been flying around a lot of late thanks to her three minute portraits of Bethnal Green’s boxers, New York’s subway dancers and an Olympic figure skater. For me this short about Ruth, a ballerina in Johannesburg who Mollie ran into at the very end of a long trip to film traditional South African Pantsula dancers, is the most captivating of them all. Check out Mollie’s story of how the film came to be on her vimeo!

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Mollie Mills: The Ballerina

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Mollie Mills: The Ballerina

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Mollie Mills: The Ballerina

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Mollie Mills: The Ballerina

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Mollie Mills: The Ballerina

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Mollie Mills: The Ballerina

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About the Author

Maisie Skidmore

Maisie joined It’s Nice That fresh out of university in the summer of 2013 as an intern before joining full time as an Assistant Editor. Maisie left It’s Nice That in July 2015.

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