Ballroom Dancer review

Documentary following a former champion Latin American dancer on the comeback trail

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Christian Holten Bonke and Andreas Koefoed’s fly-on-the-dancefloor doc follows one-time amateur world champ Slavik Kryklyvyy as he hits the comeback trail with promising but inexperienced partner (and lover) Anna Melnikova.

Anybody hoping for glamour will be disappointed: this is an icily dispassionate portrait of grinding routine in the pursuit of perfectionism.

Yet as the couple’s relationship collapses under Slavik’s passive-aggressive needling, events boil over into a tempestuous, oddly moving paso doble between the dancer’s ego and his thwarted dreams.

Simon Kinnear
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