One can debate whether some people are born to write, but there are certain people who are born to dance. I have no doubt about that. The documentary, “First Position,” is about such people. They feel music, they have a high degree of balance and they likely have the kind of elasticity that inspired super heroes like the Fantastic Four’s Mister Fantastic or The Incredibles Elastigirl.

I was one of those people. Without dance classes and any practice, I could easily do splits at 15 and back bends. I dreamed of taking ballet classes, something that my family could not afford. I had a super power and it went undirected for so many years.

Yet there are those lucky enough to have their ability recognized when they are young. Gather 5,000 of these individuals between the ages of 9 and 19 in different cities and and countries. Narrow them down to the exceptional few from the merely unusual and you have potential stars to be nurtured, not at Westchester mansion or the Brotherhood of Mutants, but the schools of notable ballet companies: Hamburg Ballet School, La Scala Ballet Academy, the Royal Ballet School, Ailey, American Ballet Theatre, Bolshoi Ballet Academy, Joffrey, San Francisco Ballet and the School at Jacob’s Pillow. That’s the goal of the non-profit Youth American Grand Prix and Bess Kargman’s documentary “First Position” takes us behind the scenes of the 2010 competition.

Bess Kargman has herself studied ballet, beginning at the age of four at the Boston Ballet School. Sneaking into the 2009 Youth America Grand Prix ballet competition in New York, she was inspired by an 11-year-old girl, Miko Fogarty, to make this documentary about the ballet competition.

Kargman is a journalist who has produced stories for National Public Radio, the Washington Post and NBC Olympics, but “First Position” is her first documentary. The title refers both to dance terminology (ballet and modern as well as other dance forms have basic arm and leg positions) and being chosen as the best. She knows that dance is about lines and hard practice, pain, bruises and suffering and this is clearly evident in how she has planned and timed shots. If Kargman has felt the pain ballet class, one also feels she still has an affection for ballet.

In her 90-minute documentary Kargman follows seven ballet dancers:  three boys (Aran Bell, Jules Jarvis Fogarty and Joan Sebastian Zamora) and four girls (Gaya Bommer Yemini, Michaela DePrince, Miko Fogarty and Rebecca Houseknecht) as they audition, practice and audition again, all in hopes of a scholarship or possible job in a tight market where ballet companies are letting dancers go and the career of a dancers is very short.

The youngest if Jules Jarvis Fogarty, 10, the brother of Miko, 12. Jules has dubious talent. He doesn’t shine when he performs and inspires more grimaces from his private teacher than smiles–a deep contrast to his teacher’s reaction to his sister. Yet the San Francisco-based Fogarty family’s schedule is built around ballet–private lessons, diet and even school. To accommodate long hours of practice, the children are home schooled and the Japanese mother, chauffeurs the kids around. The father, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, comments the kids work longer hours than he does. Preparing a future ballerina takes sacrifices and Miko and Jules’ mother, Satoko, is willing to become the ultimate stage mother, shuttling her children around and learning all she can about ballet in her native Japanese language.

In contrast to Jules’ glum face is the pure radiance of the Army brat Aran Bell. This 11-year-old skateboards and plays on a pogo stick, but on the dance floor he has that it factor, a maturity beyond his years and a presence that commands attention. His parents have sacrificed much to get him ballet lessons, even while based in Italy. While other kids might not understand his passion, he’s found a friend in the shy Israeli girl Gaya Bommer Yemini, also 11.

Gaya’s mother comments that finding herself in a class filled with adults, Gaya was timid until she met Aran and the two encourage each other as only best dance buddies can, particularly since they aren’t actually competing against each other. Kargman catches the transformation of the giggling Gaya off stage and the confident, mature-faced on-stage dancer. There’s no question that Gaya and Aran were born to perform.

The competition is broken up into age groups and by gender: Grand Prix senior (15-19), Youth Grand Prix (12-14) and Hope Award (9-11).  The first two categories award a gold, silver and bronze medal for both men and women. The Hope Award is for pre-competitive age  with first, second and third place awards. Cash prizes are given to those who place in each category. These along with scholarship and special awards brings the total value of winnings to over $250,000.

Although the name is Youth America, the organization was founded in 1999 by two former dancers for the Bolshoi Ballet, Larissa and Gennadi Saveliev. What began as a small competition for scholarships has become a major dance event in New York City.  Over 25,000 dancers world-wide will have competed in designated regional competitions for a spot on that stage and the over $2 million in scholarships and prizes. The YAGP gala performance in NYC has the winners share the stage with international guest artists after taking a week of master classes and auditioning for scholarships; the  tickets for the 2,750-seat theater sell out.

Joan Sebastian Zamora is in New York, hoping for a scholarship with the Royal Ballet, getting encouraging phone calls from his parents who are in his hometown of Cali, Colombia. They remind him that a position in an established ballet company would provide him with more salary in a month than the average yearly income in Colombia. The pressure to succeed is immense, but Zamora has great potential.

Even more heart-breaking is the dream that brought the 14-year-old Michaela Deprince to this competition. Orphaned during the civil war in her native Sierra Leone, Michaela was adopted along with another girl by two well-meaning American citizens living in Philadelphia. Her dreams of ballet dancing began with a cover photo she saw as an orphan in Africa and her adoptive parents bring warmth, humility and tremendous love to the phrase stage parents.

In contrast is the princess in pink, the 17-year-old Rebecca Houseknechy. Rebecca is a golden girl. She’s blonde and attractive in a stereotypical high school cheerleader way and was for a brief year a cheerleader in her attempt to lead a normal life. She drives her own car and her room is a study in pink. As part of her New York experience, her mother buys her a bracelet at Tiffany’s. Rebecca is looking for a job, a contract with a company during a time when ballet companies have tight budgets and are letting dancers go.  Yet the camera loves her, something that the artistic directors can’t easily ignore, but they also must judge her character and potential. In reality, everything at this competition is about potential, promise and dedication.

Kargman’s documentary could have used more of a critical eye. I’m not talking about the kind of snarkiness displayed in Lewis Segal’s review for the Los Angeles Times where he talks about Isadora Duncan and her view of ballet as deforming women. Duncan is long dead (from a fashion-related accident in 1927) and hardly a role model of how a dancer should plan his or her life and Duncan’s modern dance is no longer contemporary. Kargman, to her credit, shows how ballet deforms the feet of women and is hard on both men and women dancers, yet that’s certainly true for other forms of dance and other athletic activities as diverse as gymnastics and running marathons. Rather, there’s the troubling thinness of the 12-year-old Miko. Her arms are mere bones with connective tissue and you can see even her top most ribs when she’s standing still. She’s a smiling skeleton floating across the floor.

Dancers have a reputation for bulimia and anorexia. Micheala, Rebecca and Gaya aren’t that thin. Kargman might have tackled the issue. The weight consciousness is not helped by weight-related comments by critics of professional ballet performers such as Jenifer Ringer for her 2010 performance as the Sugar Plum Fairy for the New York City Ballet.  (Ballet critic Alastair MaCaulay for the New York Times said  she “looked as if she’d eaten one sugar plum too many.”)

Segal compared “First Position” to the fictional psychological thriller “Black Swan” and fictional ballet movie “Center Stage.” Using “Black Swan” as an analogy seems a bit overboard, even in describing the most pushy stage mother we see in “First Position.” Yet Segal has a well known dislike of ballet.  LA Times film critic Kenneth Turan (4 May 2012) gave a more favorable review to “First Position,” comparing the film to other children in competition movies such as the 2003 documentary about spelling bees, “Spellbound,” and the 2005 documentary about ballroom dancing children competing, “Mad Hot Ballroom. Watch children compete has a disarming innocence and yet allows adults to live vicariously or, for younger viewers, consider the possibilities. What can be more hopeful or heartbreaking than a child or young adult reaching for his or her dream?

I would consider “First Position” a prequel to Frederick Wiseman’s 2009 documentary about the Paris Opera Ballet, “La danse” or Bertrand Normand’s  2006 documentary on five ballerinas from the Kirov, “Ballerina.” Both films looked at the problems of being a dancer and consider how short a period these individuals had to shine.  There’s a particularly brutal segment where young girls as assessed for their potential in the latter.

For Michaela and Joan Sebastian, one can’t help but think of the movie based on a true story of escape from poverty (and communism), the 2009 Australian movie “Mao’s Last Dancer,” which was about Li Cunxin’s escape to Houston, TX from Mainland China.  Chi Cao who played the adult Li trained at the Beijing Dance Academy (his parents were Li’s former teachers) and the Royal Ballet School. He currently dances for the Birmingham Royal Ballet. For some basketball, boxing or rapping may be the fabled way out of poverty, but for Michaela and Joan Sebastian, it’s ballet.

Did Kargman dream about being a ballet dancer?  Many girls and even a few boys  (think Billy Elliot or the real-life Rudolf Nureyev) become entranced by the ethereal beauty of ballet and if they are natural dancers they can do more than dream.

Even if they can’t afford dance lessons, these girls and boys can be clearly seen. Problems with their backs because their flexibility requires extra effort to stand straight and without exercise they might have problems with knees and hips popping out. I know I do and without any lessons or even any stretching, I could easily to splits at 15 when I started gymnastics. I watched “First Position” with a feeling of wistfulness.

Kargman’s documentary is for those who might be potential dancers, or who were and missed out for some reason. It’s for those who weren’t natural dancers but wish or wished to be and for those who just appreciate the dedication and special skills, the aching potential of these seven individual young dancers. To be able to fly even for a brief shining moment of one’s youth is a super power that is real and rare and should be celebrated. Kargman’s documentary does just that.