"Breaking Pointe" Has Been Canceled

We’ll even miss Beckanne’s oversplit. OK, we’ll especially miss Beckanne’s oversplit. (Photo Erik Ostling/The CW)

Sad news, bunheads: The CW announced yesterday that it’s curtains for “Breaking Pointe.” The docusoap, which followed Utah’s Ballet West, won’t be back for a third season.

Let’s be honest: Most dance fans had a pretty conflicted relationship with the show. A lot of us were irritated by the way the cast’s interactions were manipulated for maximum drama, and disappointed by how little dancing actually made the final cut.

But here at DS, we’re genuinely sad that “Breaking Pointe”‘s run is over. It brought ballet—real, professional ballet!—to mainstream television. It earned some truly beautiful dancers, like Beckanne Sisk and Christiana Bennett, a well-deserved degree of fame. It showed us a whole lot of Frederick Ashton’s amazing (and relatively rarely-seen) Cinderella. And while some of its plotlines were melodramatic, others—especially director Adam Sklute’s hesitation about casting Josh Whitehead, the company’s only African-American male dancer, in a comic role—addressed meaty ballet-world issues.

Farewell, “Breaking Pointe.” We’ll miss our weekly dose of professional ballet company life—however “real” or “unreal” it may have been.