''Flesh and Bone'' is an American drama television miniseries created by
Moira Walley-Beckett
Moira Walley-Beckett is a Canadian television actress, producer, and writer. She was a writer and producer for the AMC drama ''Breaking Bad'' and the creator of two television series, '' Flesh and Bone'' and '' Anne with an E'' (titled ''Anne'' ...
. It premiered on November 8, 2015, on the American
cable television
Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...
network
Starz.
Ethan Stiefel
Ethan Stiefel (born February 13, 1973) is an American dancer, choreographer, and director. He was a principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre (ABT) from 1997 until July 2012. He was the artistic director of the Royal New Zealand Ballet fro ...
was a consultant and choreographer on the series.
Plot
The founder and temperamental artistic director of the American Ballet Company, Paul Grayson (
Ben Daniels), is determined to make it rank among the world's best artistic institutions. As the company's aging
prima ballerina
A ballet dancer ( it, ballerina fem.; ''ballerino'' masc.) is a person who practices the art of classical ballet. Both females and males can practice ballet; however, dancers have a strict hierarchy and strict gender roles. They rely on ye ...
, Kiira (
Irina Dvorovenko
Irina Vladimirovna Dvorovenko ( uk, Ірина Володимирівна Дворовенко; russian: Ирина Владимировна Дворовенко; born 28 August 1973) is a Ukrainian-American retired ballet dancer and actress. She ...
) struggles with an injury, Grayson believes that the company's saving grace is Claire Robbins (
Sarah Hay), a beautiful and talented ballet dancer with a troubled past, whose inner torment drives her in compelling, unforeseeable ways. The series explores the dysfunction and glamour of the ballet world.
Cast
Main
*
Sarah Hay as Claire Robbins, a beautiful and talented ballet dancer with a troubled past.
*
Ben Daniels as Paul Grayson, an Artistic Director of the American Ballet Company.
*
Emily Tyra
Emily Tyra (born November 9, 1987) is an American actress, singer and dancer.
A native of Minneapolis, Tyra grew up studying dance, music, acting and improvisation. Trained in classical ballet, Tyra began her professional career in 2005 as a da ...
as Mia Bialy, Claire's reluctant roommate who has an eating disorder.
*
Irina Dvorovenko
Irina Vladimirovna Dvorovenko ( uk, Ірина Володимирівна Дворовенко; russian: Ирина Владимировна Дворовенко; born 28 August 1973) is a Ukrainian-American retired ballet dancer and actress. She ...
as Kiira, an aging prima ballerina struggling with an injury.
*
Damon Herriman
Damon Herriman is an Australian actor. He is known for his film and television work in Australia and the United States. He is perhaps best known for his portrayal of Dewey Crowe in '' Justified''. In 2019, he portrayed the cult leader and crimina ...
as Romeo, a homeless man who lives under Claire's building.
*
Josh Helman
Joshua Helman (born 22 February 1986) is an Australian television and film actor. Helman played William Stryker in '' X-Men: Days of Future Past'', and its sequel, '' X-Men: Apocalypse''. He has also appeared in the 2015 installment of the ''Ma ...
as Bryan Robbins, Claire's brother and a former Marine.
* Raychel Diane Weiner as Daphne Kensington, an ambitious New Yorker from a privileged background.
*
Marina Benedict
Marina Benedict is an American actress best known for her role in the Golden Globe nominated series ''Flesh and Bone'' as Toni Cannava; '' Prison Break: Resurrection'' as Emily "A&W" Blake; '' Gotham'' as Cherry; '' ER'' as Lois Landry; '' Torch ...
as Toni Cannava, The American Ballet Company's transcendent new choreographer.
*
Tina Benko as Jessica, the manager of the American Ballet Company.
*
Sascha Radetsky as Ross, a womanizing principal dancer.
* Karell Williams as Trey, a struggling ballet dancer.
*
Supporting
*
Tovah Feldshuh
Terri Sue "Tovah" Feldshuh (born December 27, 1948) is an American actress, singer, and playwright. She has been a Broadway star for more than four decades, earning four Tony Award nominations. She has also received two Emmy Award nominations f ...
as Ivana, a ballet instructor.
*
John Allee as Pasha, the ballet company's piano player.
* Vanessa Aspillaga as Monica, the assistant company manager of the American Ballet Company.
* Carling Talcott as Ashley.
* Nadezhda Vostrikov as Patrice, a jealous ballet dancer in the company.
Episodes
Starz released the first episode online on November 2, 2015, and the remaining episodes were made available on November 8, 2015, through Starz's On Demand channel in addition to the channel's weekly sequential airing of episodes.
Reception
''Flesh and Bone'' received mixed to positive reviews.
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
gives a "Fresh" score of 60%, which is an average rating of 5.9 out of 10, sampled from 35 reviews. The consensus reads: "Its nuanced female relationships makes ''Flesh and Bone'' a realistic portrayal of a professional ballet company, though it suffers from a lack of levity." On another review aggregator,
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
, the miniseries holds a score of 52 out of 100, calculated from 19 critics, signifying "mixed or average reviews". For the 2016
Writers Guild of America Awards, the series was nominated for Long Form Original. For the
73rd Golden Globe Awards
The 73rd Golden Globe Awards honored the best in film and American television of 2015. It was broadcast live on January 10, 2016, from The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California beginning at 5:00 p.m. PST / 8:00 p.m. EST by NBC. ...
, the series was nominated for
Best Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television and Sarah Hay for
Best Actress in a Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television.
References
External links
*
{{Starz Shows
2010s American drama television miniseries
2015 American television series debuts
2015 American television series endings
English-language television shows
Starz original programming
Television series about ballet