DANCING ACROSS BORDERS

By Anne BASS

WIDE - as SALES All rights, World

Documentary - Completed 2010

On a trip to Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, Cambodia in January 2000, filmmaker Anne Bass came across a sixteen-year-old boy who moved her immensely with his amazing natural charm and grace as a dancer.

    • Year of production
    • 2010
    • Genres
    • Documentary
    • Countries
    • USA
    • Languages
    • ENGLISH
    • Budget
    • 1 - 3 M$
    • Duration
    • 88 mn
    • Director(s)
    • Anne BASS
    • Producer(s)
    • Jill CAMPBELL (123 Productions, Inc.)
    • Synopsis
    • Dancing Across Borders is the intimate and triumphant story of Sokvannara “Sy” Sar, who as a young man in Cambodia was dancing with a small troupe in Angkor Wat when Anne Bass, a longtime patron of dance in America, saw him perform. Bass was so taken with Sy’s talent and potential that she arranged for him to come to New York and audition for the prestigious School of American Ballet.
      What unfolds in Dancing Across Borders is a tentative negotiation between Sy and the world of American ballet and culture — from the serene countryside of Southeast Asia to the high-powered rehearsal studios of New York, and finally to the stage of the Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle. The film follows Sy’s unusual development as a dancer and offers an astonishing, behind-the-scenes look into the world of American ballet.
      At its heart, Dancing Across Borders is an extraordinary story of growth, adaptation, and belonging — and a window into the development of talent at the highest level and the mastery of an art form.