The Breaking Pointe Drama Begins

The first look at Breaking Pointe Season 2 dropped on Friday at ET Online (apart from the very cliff-hangery season preview on CW’s website). In ET’s clip, we see Christiana Bennett, Beckanne Sisk, and three other female Ballet West dancers—Sayaka Ohtaki, Arolyn Williams, and Katherine Lawrence—learn and audition for the role of Cinderella, coached by Wendy Ellis Somes. Artistic Director Adam Sklute watches as his dancers learn bits of Ashton’s classic choreography. 

 

The show’s second season begins Monday, July 22. But there are a few things we can learn from this excerpt (most of which you knew already if you had seen Ballet West’s Cinderella onstage last February):

 

1.
Allison DeBona wasn’t a Cinderella finalist.

2.
Ronnie Underwood (who should have been Beckanne’s partner for the audition) is injured and out.

3.
Port de bras for Cinderella and Swan Lake are different.

4.
Sayaka will get the award for coolest leotards this season. (see above)

5.
Nervous glances, jealous stares, and silences filled with dramatic music will be plentiful.

6.
Beckanne will get promoted in an episode. In this preview, she says, “I’m a demi soloist in this company.” If you’ve been to BW’s website, you know she (and Allison!) are now full-fledged soloists. Belated congrats, ladies.

 

Predictions
:

In the clip, Christiana says that she deserves the title role because she is a principal dancer. Welp, spoiler alert—Arolyn Williams, who was recently appointed to principal, was chosen for the first cast. (But you won’t see much of Williams onscreen: In DM‘s exclusive article on BP, she explains that she elected not to be followed.) I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that the show’s producers will tweak reality to create drama between Christiana and Beckanne as they duke it out for the part. (Even though three Cinderellas were actually cast…)

 

In the first 11 seconds of the CW’s 60-second trailer, Allison’s voice says, “Rex and I are no longer together.” My forecast: Their relationship will be one of the more prominent plotlines of the season. Yippee.

 

Still, it’s classical ballet on network TV. I can’t wait.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A goofy moment from Dance Magazine‘s photo shoot with Allison and Rex. See more images from the shoot here, as well as a behind-the-scenes video here. Photo by Matthew Karas.