Dance in Film · 2010
Black Swan (2010)
Darren Aronofsky's psychological thriller about a ballet dancer's descent into madness while preparing for Swan Lake.
Black Swan is a 2010 dance feature film centred on Modern Fusion & Commercial, Ballet. For dancers, it's a chance to see these styles performed on screen — the phrasing, partnering, and musicality that the same dances carry onto a real floor.
Jump to the 23 indexed dance sequences ↓
Dance styles featured
Where to watch: Streaming (various)
Trailer
Official trailer.
The dance sequences in Black Swan
23 sequences, 8 with a timestamp — what is danced, by whom, and where to find it.
Danced by Natalie Portman; Sarah Lane (dance double, advanced passages) · Choreography Benjamin Millepied
Lily's doorway interruption knocking Nina out of the Black Swan fouettés.
Thomas orders Nina to attack the Black Swan coda like a spider spinning a web, and she launches the thirty-two-fouetté test with visibly tighter force than her Odette. Lily's noisy arrival breaks Nina's spotting and sends her out of the turn, attaching the rival's entrance to the exact skill Nina must master.
Stream or rental only — the timestamp is for when you have it playing. 00:13:41 is the explicit Black Swan coda cue in the named 1080p Blu-ray reference; Nina's turn sequence follows immediately. The marker is medium confidence because rental editions can shift.
Danced by Natalie Portman; Sarah Lane (dance double, advanced passages) · Choreography Benjamin Millepied
Nina trying to surrender to the metamorphosis while Thomas narrates the force overtaking her.
Thomas asks the choreography to look as if a force is taking Nina while her arms rise and collapse through the Swan Queen's metamorphosis. Portman's held jaw and narrow upper body resist the very possession the movement describes, making the rehearsal a failed transformation rather than a neutral studio run.
Stream or rental only — the timestamp is for when you have it playing. 00:28:20 is Thomas's timed instruction for the metamorphosis phrase in the named 1080p Blu-ray reference. The cue directly anchors the passage but remains medium across editions.
Danced by Mila Kunis; Maria Riccetto (dance double, advanced passages) · Choreography Benjamin Millepied
Thomas stopping Nina's work to make her study Lily's effortless, unbound phrasing.
Lily lets the combination travel through her torso and shoulders with a looseness Thomas cannot draw out of Nina. His order to watch her converts Kunis's relaxed port de bras into a public lesson, while Lily's tattoo and unguarded body make the understudy look like the Black Swan before she has the part.
Stream or rental only — the timestamp is for when you have it playing. 00:29:17 is Thomas's instruction to watch Lily move in the named 1080p Blu-ray reference; her demonstration is already visible around the cue. Confidence is medium for version variance.
Danced by Natalie Portman; Benjamin Millepied; Vincent Cassel; Sarah Lane (dance double, advanced passages) · Choreography Benjamin Millepied
Thomas dismissing David and taking the prince's place to force intimacy into Nina's partnering.
David lifts Nina, places her down and approaches the kiss built into the Black Swan pas de deux while Thomas needles both partners about whether desire is visible. Thomas then replaces the prince and crowds Nina himself, turning the rehearsal hold into coercion and making the choreography's seduction inseparable from the director's manipulation.
Stream or rental only — the timestamp is for when you have it playing. 00:45:41 is the timed command that restarts the pas de deux in the named 1080p Blu-ray reference. The marker is medium because commercial masters may shift.
Danced by Natalie Portman; Sarah Lane (dance double, advanced passages) · Choreography Benjamin Millepied
Nina absorbing the warning about Lily and immediately submitting to one more repetition.
Nina keeps restarting the same studio phrase on Thomas's clipped 'Again,' sharpening each placement while the room around her empties of patience. News that Lily has been talking about the role flashes across Nina's face, but she answers the threat by returning to the combination rather than leaving the floor.
Stream or rental only — the timestamp is for when you have it playing. 00:53:01 is a timed 'Again' cue that sends Nina back into the combination in the named 1080p Blu-ray reference. It is a direct but edition-dependent anchor, so confidence is medium.
- 01:04:22
Nightclub dance with Lily
Danced by Natalie Portman; Mila Kunis; nightclub ensemble · Choreography Benjamin Millepied
Nina and Lily disappearing into the strobing crowd until their faces seem to exchange places.
Strobe light breaks Nina and Lily into flashes as they push through the club crowd, abandoning ballet's vertical line for bent knees, head rolls and contact improvised at arm's length. Their faces repeatedly merge in the lighting and bodies, letting Nina's drugged loss of control look like both rivalry and identification.
Stream or rental only — the timestamp is for when you have it playing. 01:04:22 is Lily's timed cue to go dance in the named 1080p Blu-ray reference; the pair reaches the floor immediately afterward. Confidence is medium because the marker precedes the physical onset and editions can vary.
Danced by Natalie Portman; Benjamin Millepied; Sergio Torrado; company ensemble · Choreography Benjamin Millepied
Nina frozen on the rehearsal platform as Thomas commands her to jump.
Thomas walks Nina through Odette's broken heart, the blood, and the successive looks to Rothbart, the prince and the audience while she climbs the platform above the company. Her body stops at the edge until his command drives the jump, making the finale's release something she can rehearse technically but not yet choose.
Stream or rental only — the timestamp is for when you have it playing. 01:15:09 is Thomas's explicit 'final act' cue in the named 1080p Blu-ray reference; his narrated run of the death-leap staging follows. Confidence is medium for edition variance.
Danced by Natalie Portman; Sarah Lane (dance double, advanced passages) · Choreography Benjamin Millepied
Nina continuing alone as the mirror image begins moving independently.
Nina repeats the variation in the emptied studio after the workday has fallen away, pointe steps clicking against an otherwise silent room. When the reflected dancer stops obeying her, the mirror-line solo becomes a pursuit by Nina's own Black Swan rather than another supervised correction.
Stream or rental only — the timestamp is for when you have it playing. 01:18:29 is the timed command to take the variation again in the named 1080p Blu-ray reference; the after-hours continuation follows from that restart. The anchor is medium across versions.
Black Swan transformation
Classical BalletDanced by Natalie Portman; Benjamin Millepied; company dancers · Choreography Benjamin Millepied
Fouettés, black costuming and effects synchronize at the peak, fusing virtuosity with bodily metamorphosis.
The camera expands and contracts with the number, moving from architectural wides to selective details at musical turning points. Scale, costume and formation changes amplify the choreography instead of replacing it, so the spectacle remains anchored in dancing bodies.
Company class and Swan Queen selection
Classical BalletDanced by Natalie Portman; Mila Kunis; Ksenia Solo; Kristina Anapau; Janet Montgomery; company ensemble · Choreography Benjamin Millepied
Thomas walking through the moving class and silently marking possible Swan Queens by touch.
The company moves through fondu, plié and fifth-position work in a mirror-lined studio while dancers quietly shed warm-ups as Thomas studies them. His taps on selected shoulders continue over the combinations, turning an ordinary class line into an audition whose verdict arrives without stopping the pianist.
Stream or rental only — the timestamp is for when you have it playing. The dancers are already moving when the first relevant class dialogue appears near 00:10:01; because the physical onset is subtitle-silent, the timestamp remains blank/low.
Company rehearsal for Swan Lake
Classical BalletDanced by Natalie Portman; Mila Kunis; Benjamin Millepied; company dancers · Choreography Benjamin Millepied
Mirrors, partial views and corrective interruption turn rehearsal into surveillance.
Observational coverage keeps the dancers' full bodies and surrounding community in view, using close-ups mainly to reveal effort and response. Because the film lets attempts, corrections and recoveries remain visible, the sequence shows how the dance is made rather than presenting only a polished result.
First White Swan rehearsal after casting
Classical BalletDanced by Natalie Portman; Sarah Lane (dance double, advanced passages) · Choreography Benjamin Millepied
Thomas approving Nina's White Swan and immediately warning that the role also has to bite.
Nina's first rehearsal as Swan Queen settles into the clean, yielding White Swan line that won her the role. Thomas ends the passage by conceding that the white half works and demanding more bite, so the calm studio phrase becomes the baseline against which every later Black Swan failure is measured.
Stream or rental only — the timestamp is for when you have it playing. The White Swan rehearsal begins before Thomas's timed notes at 00:27:34 in the named 1080p Blu-ray reference; its subtitle-silent onset remains blank/low.
Home coda practice and cracked toenail
Classical BalletDanced by Natalie Portman · Choreography Benjamin Millepied
The repeated home turns ending in the close view of Nina's split toenail.
Back in the apartment, Nina repeats the coda turns alone against the mirror instead of accepting the audition as finished. The practice ends on her cracked big toenail, collapsing the distance between the Black Swan's virtuosic rotation and the body that has to absorb it.
Stream or rental only — the timestamp is for when you have it playing. The apartment practice is a dialogue-free passage between timed subtitle cues; without a stable physical onset, the timestamp is blank/low.
Lily rehearses Nina's role with David
Classical BalletDanced by Mila Kunis; Benjamin Millepied; Maria Riccetto (dance double, advanced passages) · Choreography Benjamin Millepied
Nina arriving to see Lily calmly dancing her part with David.
Nina enters late to find Lily already marking her role with David, the understudy's relaxed partnering occupying the place Nina expected to hold. The studio doorway keeps Nina outside the phrase long enough for the substitute pas de deux to register as a complete image of replacement.
Stream or rental only — the timestamp is for when you have it playing. Lily and David are already rehearsing when Nina arrives before the timed line at 01:11:36; the physical onset cannot be established and remains blank/low.
Morning ballet exercises in the apartment
Classical BalletDanced by Natalie Portman · Choreography Benjamin Millepied
Nina rehearsing precise ballet positions against the apartment's childlike pink décor.
In the pink apartment, Nina works extensions and foot articulations beside the living-room mirror while Erica watches from the domestic space behind her. The close attention to toes and ankles makes the dancer's damaged feet coexist with the serene line she presents at company class.
Stream or rental only — the timestamp is for when you have it playing. Nina is already exercising before dialogue begins at 00:03:55 in the named 1080p Blu-ray reference; the silent onset is therefore blank/low.
Nightclub release
Commercial / Industry DanceDanced by Natalie Portman; Mila Kunis; club ensemble · Choreography Benjamin Millepied
Strobing edits and crushed space deliberately destroy ballet's vertical control and stable point of view.
The sequence gains force by cutting between sharply different movement textures while keeping each style visually legible. That contrast turns technique into character: posture, groove and use of space communicate the conflict before dialogue can explain it.
Opening dream ballet
Classical BalletDanced by Natalie Portman; Benjamin Millepied · Choreography Benjamin Millepied
A dark, unstable stage and circling camera make classical partnering feel like a threat inside Nina's body.
Editing and production design move between physical space and a heightened performance world without losing the dancers' bodily through-line. The choreography externalizes thought through scale, repetition and contrast, so the sequence lands as an argument made in movement.
Opening dream ballet — Rothbart's spell
Classical BalletDanced by Natalie Portman; Sergio Torrado; Sarah Lane (dance double, advanced passages) · Choreography Benjamin Millepied
Rothbart's cape swallowing Nina and releasing her as the White Swan.
A single white spotlight catches Nina turning on pointe before Rothbart's black shape drives her across the darkness and wraps her in his cape. When Portman emerges in the White Swan tutu, the dream has converted a costume change into the film's first bodily transformation.
Stream or rental only — the timestamp is for when you have it playing. The ballet begins before the first timed dialogue in the named 1080p Blu-ray reference, so the onset is left blank rather than estimated. Rental masters may also differ.
Opening-night Black Swan pas de deux, coda and transformation
Classical BalletDanced by Natalie Portman; Benjamin Millepied; Sarah Lane (dance double, advanced passages); Sergio Torrado · Choreography Benjamin Millepied
Black feathers racing across Nina's arms as the fouettés complete her transformation.
Nina attacks the Black Swan pas de deux and coda in the black tutu until repeated turns seem to sprout feathers from her shoulders and arms. Libatique's camera circles inside the motion as her eyes redden and wings fill the frame, then the ovation carries her straight to Thomas for a triumphant kiss.
Stream or rental only — the timestamp is for when you have it playing. The Black Swan act follows the 01:34:05 places call, but its dance onset is subtitle-silent in the named 1080p Blu-ray reference; it remains blank/low.
Opening-night Odette death leap and finale
Classical BalletDanced by Natalie Portman; Benjamin Millepied; Sarah Lane (dance double, advanced passages); Sergio Torrado; company ensemble · Choreography Benjamin Millepied
Nina's final leap, the white costume blooming red, and her backstage declaration of perfection.
Back in white, Nina dances Odette with blood spreading beneath the costume, then repeats the rehearsed looks toward Rothbart, the prince and the audience from the high platform. She commits to the leap onto the hidden mattress and receives the company's applause before the wound is discovered, joining the ballet's death with her whispered claim that she was perfect.
Stream or rental only — the timestamp is for when you have it playing. The final act follows the 01:37:39 call, but the dance begins without a timed subtitle cue; the onset is therefore blank/low rather than inferred.
Opening-night White Swan act and failed lift
Classical BalletDanced by Natalie Portman; Benjamin Millepied; Sarah Lane (dance double, advanced passages); company ensemble · Choreography Benjamin Millepied
The prince dropping Nina from the White Swan lift while the performance continues around them.
In the white tutu, Nina enters among the corps and gives Odette the pale, exact line the production expects, but backstage panic keeps bleeding into the stage picture. David loses her in the lift and Portman hits the floor in full view, turning Nina's most secure half of the role into an opening-night public failure.
Stream or rental only — the timestamp is for when you have it playing. The White Swan performance starts after the 01:28:02 places call but without a timed physical onset in the named 1080p Blu-ray reference, so the timestamp is blank/low.
White Swan audition — Odette variation
Classical BalletDanced by Natalie Portman; Sarah Lane (dance double, advanced passages) · Choreography Benjamin Millepied
Thomas stopping Nina's careful White Swan variation with a touch to her chest.
Nina enters Odette's variation with exact placements and a guarded softness, the qualities Thomas already associates with her White Swan. His finger to her sternum stops the phrase mid-flight, making the audition's emotional problem visible at the point where her immaculate technique cannot open further.
Stream or rental only — the timestamp is for when you have it playing. Nina's Odette variation is underway before the timed correction at 00:13:32 in the named 1080p Blu-ray reference, so its silent onset is left blank/low.
White Swan stage performance
Classical BalletDanced by Natalie Portman; Benjamin Millepied; company dancers · Choreography Benjamin Millepied
The performance is repeatedly invaded by Nina's subjective vision, making technical fragility visible as horror.
Editing and production design move between physical space and a heightened performance world without losing the dancers' bodily through-line. The choreography externalizes thought through scale, repetition and contrast, so the sequence lands as an argument made in movement.
More dance films
Poster artwork and title data from TMDB. This site uses TMDB and the TMDB APIs but is not endorsed, certified, or otherwise approved by TMDB.