Simone Orlando was Ballet BC’s lead dancer for 12 years. During rehearsals for a new ballet, Simone suffered an injury that was so severe she could hardly walk, let alone dance. Hiding her affliction with painkillers, she struggled on, but at a long-term cost, and eventually Orlando had to accept that surgery was required.

We all know the show must go on, but what happens to the performer left behind? Broken is an intimate portrait of a dedicated dancer in crisis, facing a career-threatening injury, forced to reevaluate what those years of commitment have been all about.

Featuring stunning never-before-seen photos and footage shot behind the scenes at Ballet BC, Broken is a poignant study of the devotion that artists and performers (and by extension, athletes and musicians) bring to their vocation, and what happens when injury threatens their life’s work – and their sense of identity.

Simone Orlando and Lynne Spencer will introduce both screenings.