Bringing dancing to a new platform
Watch Pointe Shoes, Prayers & A Pandemic for free from February 26.
Amid a global pandemic, a South African dance teacher Michelle Pieterse has to keep her business afloat.
Michelle is thus forced to reinvent her traditional training methods.
From a deep need to instil hope in her students during the bleakest of years in 2020, Pointe Shoes, Prayers & A Pandemic is an inspiring documentary short film. It encapsulates the journey of Pieterse and how her dance studio, Michelle Leibrandt School of Dance (MLSD), was born.
The heart-warming and often gut-wrenching film releases to the general public worldwide for free online on February 26 at 8pm. It will continue to be available for streaming online for a limited viewing period until March 1.
2020 began with great promise and expectations for Michelle and MLSD. Her dance classes were jam-packed with eager students who had painstakingly been training and preparing for months for a much-anticipated World Dance Challenge Finals in Portugal.
Then in an instant, those dreams were shattered by Covid-19.
Michelle had to inform her students and their parents that their much-anticipated trip to Portugal was cancelled only days before departing and that they could quite possibly lose all their money invested in the trip.
She, after all, couldn’t have predicted that a global pandemic would put the whole world in lockdown when the planning for the tour began.
After the hard lockdown when the school could re-open, Michelle promised a safer way of training, only to discover another threat to her business’ survival. Her students were leaving for several reasons, including financial limitations.
Through prayer, she realised the only way to instil hope and inspire them to achieve their dreams for 2020 is to give her students a platform to showcase their hard work. Michelle knew she needed to create a documentary to pay testament to the journey travelled.
Thus Pointe Shoes, Prayers & A Pandemic was born. A story is told of how an artform such as dancing created an escape for South African young dancers.
To view the film, pre-register online at www.andscene.live via “On Demand”.
The film is free to view, but there is an option included for the viewer to show their support, should they wish to for MLSD and future projects (which includes a full-length feature film showcasing their students).
This can be found via the “Buy me a Coffee” link, either at the bottom of the web page, otherwise at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/PointeShoesFilm
