I am American but I also have lived in Asia, my appreciation for the arts, especially ballet, have always been drawn from a hodge-podge of influences both Western and Asian. That said, I definitely consider the current trend of worshipping serious to the point of dourness, self-sacrificing Russian ballerinas as epitomized by Olga Smirnova in The Prodigy, to be backwards thinking and stereotypical. It's off-putting in so many ways. First of all, it cements the stereotype of ballerinas as obsessively self-sacrificing maidens wedded to their art, to the point that they exist in cocooned world of ballet impenetrable from outside influences and ideas. I agree with poster above, SMballet, in that Smirnova comes across as joyless and uninteresting beyond her devotion to ballet. Since when is the ballerina to be exalted for being joyless, serious, and borderline obsessive-compulsive? A well-crafted short documentary aside, that is the dark undertone I got from watching it.
What's more, Smirnova says and implies of a life without friends and without life outside of the ballet studio and stage. Even at lunch Smirnova looks dull and serious. Every idea and influence Smirnova has, it implies, she gets from within her sealed-off world of ambitious talent climbing the ballerina ladder at the Bolshoi. This type of devoted obsession, in my opinion, is insipid rather than inspired. All this time alone in the studio or within her own mind thinking of ways of perfecting poses or certain movements in order to stand out from other talented dancers, is taking away time that could be used to experience and explore a fuller life outside of company life, artistic or not artistic. A young, talented dancer should have charisma, that is a given. But in my view, she should also possess intellectual and artistic curiosity in the world around her or at the very least try to live a life outside of ballet, rather than to just seal herself off within the confines of studio and stage. Being young should predispose a dance artist to embrace a breadth of worldly ideas, especially given the interconnected world we live in today. So it's a throwback to see a young dancer like Smirnova who seems to embrace an old-fashioned, slavish, and narrow devotion. Such a devotion inadvertently turns ballet as art form into mere craft, because there is no creative input or influences from things unrelated to ballet and its world. Such thinking has given us, in my opinion, the current Russian aesthetic of looks or the physicality of dance over the usage of pure, classical technique to express drama, characterization, and ideas.
Sorry if my assessments seems rather harsh, I know I am of the minority opinion here nevertheless. But as a former ballet student from the late 1980s and ongoing ballet fan, I just feel the need to offer a countering view. I also should note that I do prefer ballerinas who are capable of expressing joy and a love of dance when they dance, whether inside studio or on the stage. I equate such intangible qualities or vibes to be on par as the sense of aloof coolness, which has been used to describe Smirnova, if not more. Of course I am not saying a ballerina should always convey same moods or same quirks in their own personalities, but that today there is an overwhelming view that a excessively sinuous ballerina giving off aloof and cool vibes on stage automatically equates with definition of True Ballerina in the pinnacle of her ballerina art.