This is the kind of thing I'm always searching for: a story. An ultimate expression of story-telling to me, would be something like "The Queens Gambit." This movie is in the same league, but not entirely comparable. QB is a great reference point because both movies toggle into alternate realities, but it's easy to pretend to play chess and another thing altogether to pretend to dance ballet.
These must be pro or semi-pro dancers...and who else would you have play the part. I prefer this to "actors" pretending to dance, however, we can only get shallow portrayal of emotions out of the pro dancers. I'd almost prefer if it was shot to resemble a documentary except for the beautiful way Aurora is handled. Loved this character and loved the very light touch; the way she was delicately portrayed.
It is an excellent story, but I can't see how this would ever be perfectly cast.
At any rate, this production succeeded in story-telling and I appreciate that. I was there, with our characters even if they weren't up to film acting.