GeoPierpont I was not prepared for such an incredible film about a boy who could dance. I have studied ballet for years and coveted the skills of capable dancers in class. I have immense respect for the art form and experience an unearthly spiritual communion with incomparable talent, i.e. Mikhail Baryshnikov. If you have seen him perform at his height of talent you expect to never see anything like it in your lifetime.Enter Sy Sar from Cambodia and amble through his difficult transition from articulate cultural dance as a boy to a mega-talent competing at Varna. I could not believe my eyes as he performed Le Corsaire, Giselle, Nutcracker, etc. World class level and surprised I had not heard of him. Gorgeous, evocative, stunning are just afterthoughts compared to what I felt inside watching this young man dance.I cannot thank Anne Bass and Olga, his first patient teacher, and all those involved enough to bring such joy to the screen and my heart. Very high recommend for anyone who has a dream and succeeds beyond the imagination. Bravo!!

atlasmb The Cambodian people are still suffering in the wake of the atrocities and inhumanities committed by the Khmer Rouge. An American filmmaker visits Cambodia and watches a folk dance performed by children in an ancient temple where she senses that one boy has "something special". After she leaves the country, she keeps recalling this boy and wonders if his natural talents might translate into ballet skills. She arranges for his travel to the U.S. and an audition.This is the improbable yet true story of Sy (pronounced SEE), who leaves his native country with no real understanding of ballet, no understanding of what he is to encounter, and no use of the English language. Dancing Across Borders is a documentary that shows the development of this dancer, who came to ballet so late, and his awakening to the possibilities of his new life. He trains with excellent teachers. He learns the discipline of ballet. And he is exposed to other cultures and the world at large as he travels to competitions.In the end, Sy feels somewhat displaced--alienated from his family and the Cambodian experience. But he comes to love ballet and feels he is on the right path.Anne Bass, the woman who discovered him and the director of this film provides a fairly unbiased look at the journey of Sy. The film lets us know that we do not witness all the bumps along the road Sy travels. On a more subtle level, this is a film about the mysterious spark that illuminates some few who are more than technicians, they are truly performers.

TinyDanseur27 Dancing Across Borders is about Sokvannara 'Sy' Sar, a Cambodian boy who is spotted by a woman during her trip to Cambodia. Upon seeing him perform a traditional Cambodian dance, and recognizing the uncultivated talent he possessed, the woman offers Sy the opportunity to come to America and study ballet in New York City. This documentary is about Sy's journey to America and how he not only learned ballet, but came to be an extraordinary professional dancer.I found this documentary to be very heart-warming. Sy is a very likable guy. The documentary contains countless dance footage of him with interviews with Sy and his teachers interspersed throughout. Considering that Sy had never heard of ballet, he didn't know any English upon his arrival to the U.S., and got a very late start in pursuing a professional career in ballet, his story is quite miraculous. I thought that the subject of this documentary was really interesting and I found myself rather inspired by Sy's story.My issue with the documentary was that it dragged a bit. The pace seemed a bit too slow to me and many of the interviews were just saying the same thing again and again: how great Sy is. I loved the dance footage though. There were some especially great clips of rehearsal footage. I just felt that Dancing Across Borders could have used a bit more editing. Overall, I liked it though! I give it 6 stars!

angelofvic Netflix kept telling me I would like this, so I finally watched it (via streaming, also available on DVD), and boy I certainly did!It's one of the best ballet films I've seen, if not the very best. The documentary follows a gifted young Cambodian boy dancer, Sy, from his (recreated) childhood in Cambodia, where he begged his mother to be able to attend dance classes. She said no, but he snuck off anyway to the school. He was spotted by an American during a performance, and when she went back to the U.S., she couldn't stop thinking about his enormous talent, his charisma, his exquisitely fluid movement and form, and his beauty. Since she knew that dancers in Cambodia have no future at all and that he would quickly become an impoverished fisherman, she approached ballet schools in NY and insisted that they take him on as a student.The film then follows several years worth of Sy's training, performance, and competition in the U.S. and abroad.Wonderfully satisfying ballet footage, well presented, and in a variety of styles and locations, within an inspirational story. Backstage highlights as well, at the nations' best ballet companies.Really the best ballet film I've seen, and highly recommended.