Derek Dunn


Watched this with my wife the other day. We enjoyed it (especially since we have a daughter in ballet, though we're quite happy she'd rather just perform with her group than compete!) However, I was a little disappointed in one thing.

There was a boy -- apparently his name was Derek Dunn -- that they mention part-way through. They even introduce us to his parents. (His dad says something like, at first he was expecting his son to be involved in sports, but he couldn't be more proud of him now.) He trained at the same school as Michaela and can be seen hugging her at the end. I was hoping they would've followed him more. However, about the only thing you see from him is him messing up on stage and getting upset backstage. (Apparently he's at the Houston Ballet now and doing quite well there, though.)

I'm wondering if they initially followed him but decided to drop most of his footage for some reason (so they could focus on the others?) He has a sister Danielle who was also mentioned in the credits. I'm not sure if they showed any footage of her or not. The director stated in the commentary that she really wanted to follow a "sibling duo". I wonder if she tailed both the Dunns and Miko & Jules and decided somewhere along the way to focus on the second pair instead? (More drama with Miko winning an award at such a young age and her brother dropping out of dance, perhaps?)

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