The classical music, the graceful dancers, and the darkness that is unleashed. “Ballerina horror” may not be an official category in horror, but placing ballet dancers into the world of fright and gore is more popular than one might expect.Abigail(2024) has now added atiny dancerto the list of other ballerinas who get blood all over their pointe shoes, joiningNatalie Portman’s descent into madnessinBlack Swan(2010) and the coven-run dance academy inSuspiria(2018). Ballerinas are in constant peril, from dangers in their workplace to intimate ones in their personal lives. There might be no separation between art and life as thesetortured artistsare consumed by their craft. What makes all of these entries of “ballerina horror” fascinating to watch is the two contrasts that are involved, the delicate and the deadly, and how they blend into one.
After a group of criminals kidnaps the ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, they retreat to an isolated mansion, unaware that they’re locked inside with no normal little girl.
Ballerinas Might Be Under the Control of Dangerous Men
A popular theme seen in these movies is how women are manipulated or controlled by men, whether it’s their ballet instructor or someone with high authority at the company.The Red Shoes(1948) is an influential film among the many on-screen stories about the dark side of ballet, and it focuses on the upcoming star Victoria Page (Moira Shearer) who must choose between art and love. Her struggle is set into motion by the owner of a renowned ballet company, Boris Lermontov (Anton Walbrook), who is abusive toward her. He desires Victoria’s talents after the success of the show, “The Ballet of The Red Shoes,“which she turns into her showstopping debut, based on the fairy tale byHans Christian Andersen. However, like a pair of glass or ruby slippers, the red shoes come with a price. Whoever wears them is cursed to never stop dancing until death grants them freedom. Life imitates art when Victoria can’t choose between love or stardom, deciding to leap to her death instead.
Lermontov’s attempts at seductive wish granting to his starlet can also be seen inBlack Swanwith Mr. Leroy (Vincent Cassel), who has no boundaries he won’t cross with his dancers, setting his eyes on Nina (Portman). He is entirely abusive to her, kissing and groping her for what he claims to be acts to bring out her Black Swan persona. “Ready to be thrown to the wolves?” he says to her as they stand above possible donors. In thesemodern fairy tales where ballerinas hope to achieve their dreams, Lermontov and Leroy are the wolves, making the ballet world a hostile environment. Being completely under someone’s control is then taken to the extreme in the sci-fi seriesFringe.
The Fringe team solves cases of science gone wrong and, in “Marionette,” this involves a scientist who wants to reanimate the corpse of a young ballerinawho ended her life due to depression. In one of the show’s creepiest scenes, he turns the girl into a human marionette. Taking place in his dark basement, a phonograph lets out a grainy version of Prokofiev’s ballet score ofRomeo and Julietuntil the music turns crisp as the scientist lifts the girl’s body with ropes and pulleys to allow her to dance again. The beautiful movements of ballet are tainted by how these women find themselves objects by a company owner or a mad scientist, but that is far from the only problem they can face in these stories. Men aren’t always responsible —maternal figures have a hand in damaging and disrupting the lives of young dancers.
Mother Figures Are Destructive in Ballerina Horror Stories
Barbara Hershey’s Erica inBlack Swanis overbearing, desperate to live out her past career through her daughter. While Mr. Leroy resides at the ballet company, Erica reigns control over the apartment Nina shares with her, ensuring that there are no locks on any of the doors. In a small but telling scene from the2018 remake ofSuspiria, Madame Blanc (Tilda Swinton) helpsSusie (Dakota Johnson)gain the ability to jump higher, by transferring it from another dancer, which causes the latter to suffer a seizure. When they regain consciousness, the woman sobs and clings to Blanc, desperate to feel safe as if she’s about two decades younger than she is. A coven of witches, with Blanc in a leadership role, takes advantage of their dancers as part of their rituals, murdering any of them to stop their secret from getting out.
Kathryn Newton’s Dance in ‘Abigail’ Is Like “M3GAN on Steroids”
Move over, M3GAN! There’s a new dancer in town.
The evils inSuspiriacome in the form ofmotherhood and matriarchy, at an all-girls academy where the dancers are far away from their homes and must rely on their teachers to be their caregivers. The teachers are not the guardians they pretend to be; many of them perish in the blood-drenched finale when Susie emerges as the true leader of the coven, declaring “Death to any other mother,” having seen the sins of these older women.Because of how otherworldly ballet can seem, it forms the perfect stage for the supernatural, like inSuspiria.However, there is also the real-life pain and suffering that is part of ballet’s rigorous discipline where the dancers must appear elegant.
The Body Horror in Ballerina Horror Stories
In the South Korean horror movie,Wishing Stairs(2003), the cost of winning is disastrouswhen there are competitive dancers that turn on each other. Young and aspiring ballerina So-hee (Park Han-byul) impresses everyone during an audition with precision and a big smile, but the camera makes sure to capture her bleeding toes from shards of glass someone put into her pointe shoes. InBlack Swan, Nina’s obsession with being perfect causes her to have an eating disorder and do excessive training at home, where she painfully cracks a toenail. Then, at a later practice, she needs a therapist to push a hand deep under her ribs to relieve pressure.
The original 1977Suspiriawas set in a ballet academy, but the actual dancing was limited in favor of the electrifying score and kill scenes bursting in primary colors. The 2018 remake replaced ballet with contemporary dance but uses it in more creative ways that can be both empowering and demented. The coven performs spell-casted body horrorwhen they hex a dance to help Susie, causing bone-crunching torment to a fellow student who attempts to escape.Later, the unsettling soundtrack byThom Yorkeis intoxicating as it plays in dance performances that almost feel violent, full of heavy breathing and feet that smack the floor, untilMia Goth’s character is no longer under a spell, and screams in agony from a badly injured leg. Ballerinas aren’t always the victim of dark forces though, they can become the monster themselves.
When Lupita Nyong’o Used Ballet Against Her Double
InUs(2019),Lupita Nyong’o’s dual roles of Adelaide and Red bring violence onto others and each other as they are both destructive mother figures and deadly ballerinas. Back in childhood, Adelaide took ballet; Red mimicked these performances in the subterranean tunnels where the Tethered — society’s primal doppelgängers — are forced to live. Dance choreographerMadeline Hollanderdescribed creating their distinct movements toARTnews, saying how Adelaide moves “gracefully” and Red has no balance, but a “super rigid ballet spine.” Inthe finale ofUs, they demonstrate their abilities in a brutal duel. Adelaide and Red spin and lunge at one another, moving down the underground tunnel where large sections have no lights.
They become shadows that are difficult to distinguish from each other, hinting at the movie’s plot twist: Adelaide switched places with her double when they were kids, and the person we have believed to be the true Adelaide all along is actually Red. Their interchangeabilityshows there is no way to separate a person’s good and bad nature.In the end, the rel Adelaide craves revenge and Red fights for survival. Repressing or trying to hide one’s darkness only unleashes it with enormous fury.
And this is why the mirrors in the practice rooms for ballet make for great on-screen metaphors. These are huge reflective surfaces that allow each dancer to critique their rivals or worse, themselves.The horror genre takes this further by wondering about the darkest impulses of an elegant ballerina, unraveling the beauty to find the darknessthey are capable of. Victoria Page inThe Red Shoesfatally struggles with the two sides of her life, andUsphysically gives two sides to Adelaide. There is no better way to depict this duality in ballerina horror stories than by using grand, reflective walls. One ofBlack Swan’s most unforgettable images is Nina’s reflection turning around to look at her; a malevolent entity entirely its own.
‘Abigail’ and ‘Black Swan’ Transform Their Dancers Into Monsters
AbigailandBlack SwanuseSwan Laketo depict the duality of good and evil. In that ballet, Odette is turned into the Swan Queen and must find true love to break the spell, but her wicked twin, the Black Swan, causes a betrayal by a prince, and Odette kills herself to escape this pain. InAbigail, the inclusion of the ballet’s music represents the titular girl’s youthful, innocent appearance, like the Swan Queen, who desires her father’s love and attention. And like the Black Swan, there is Abigail’s (Alisha Weir) monstrous real identity as an ancient vampire who loves to play with her food. The movie puts thesetwo sides of her together on-screen when Abigail gleefully twirls on stage with a headless body, lost in Tchaikovsky’s score.While there is nothing supernatural inBlack Swan, Nina is so consumed with ballet perfection, that she becomes her own worst enemy.
The opening blurs reality and fantasy right away when Nina dreams of performing the Swan Lake prologuein a black void with a single spotlight. When the scene cuts to Nina waking up, it immediately shows her eyes already open — no line between fantasy and reality has been drawn. The filmmaking is as consumed bySwan Lakeas Nina is, especially in Tchaikovsky’s majestic music, remixed by composerClint Mansellto become a horror score. The handheld camera work inBlack Swangives off a documentary-like feeling, which makes it more personal and frightening when Nina’s hallucinations of body horror become more unhinged. She continuously scratches her shoulder blades, digging out a growing feather, until finally,at opening night, Nina transforms into the Black Swan, with eyes blood-red and arms flaunting wings.
SinceThe Red Shoes, the ballet world and the dancers within it have made their way into the horror genre, where what we usually perceive as beautiful and majestic can take its darkest form.InBlack Swan, a toast “to beauty” cuts to Nina, docile and in a white dress, picking impulsively at her cuticle until she peels off the skinto expose the red flesh underneath. InSuspiria, Tilda Swinton’s head witch proclaims to her dancing students, “There are two things that dance can never be again: beautiful and cheerful. Today, we need to break the nose of every beautiful thing.” Their performances are then as breathtaking as they are disturbing. WithAbigailnow twirling alongsideSuspiriaandBlack Swan, ballerinas continue to be beautiful and horrifying all at once.
