I'd heard the dancing in this movie was good. That's why I bought it. There was only a minuscule amount of dancing that looked like it could have been done by any decent actress, so I don't know why a ballerina needed to be hired to help out. Also, I'm no prude, but I didn't need to see graphic lesbian sex. That part was disgusting. Please!And that guy who played the ballet master, there was something about him that just totally turned me off. He was a real pig, and it really showed in his face. Just a revolting person. I watched it with a friend, who knows a lot about ballet companies, and she hated it too, for the same reasons, but especially because there was no dancing to speak of in the movie and the graphic sex was disgusting. Natalie Portman's acting was very good, I will admit, and the woman who played her mother was even better. If that ballet master was trying to be utterly repulsive, then his acting was good too.