Suzanne's Mom's Blog

Photo: Larsen & Talbert/Los Angeles Times.
Eden, left, and Jordan Lim of the YouTube channel “Ballet Reign” at their Carrollton, Texas, studio. The two have more than 67,000 subscribers in 166 countries.

What started as a dream and a lot of hard work for Jordan Lim (at age 4) has blossomed into a YouTube career with her sister Eden explaining ballet to the world at large.

It’s an unusual story. Scot Paltrow wrote about “Ballet Reign” for the Los Angeles Times, and MSN made the story available without a firewall.

” ‘Everyone is at least a dormant ballet nerd,’ declares 22-year-old Eden Lim, while sitting for an interview in the suburban Dallas studio where she and her sister, Jordan, 24, film and edit their popular YouTube channel. …

“Judging from the near-universal backlash to Timothée Chalamet’s recent bad-mouthing of ballet, Eden’s summation of the central tenet of their show may be true. With 67,000 subscribers in 166 countries and growing, the Lim sisters are mixing Gen Z humor and exuberance with astounding erudition to bring ballet to a new generation and fire up older, longtime fans.

“With episode titles such as ‘Addictive Ballet Moments to Alter your Brain Chemistry’ and promises like ‘This will increase your lifespan and double your morale,’ they are on a mission to ensure that ballet not only survives but thrives.

“Mirthfulness is the Lim sisters’ medium, but their message is serious. During each show, they parse video clips of great performances, often by explaining the history of the piece and giving detailed behind-the-scenes stories. They dissect the most famous pas de deux with trenchant insight and introduce their audience to the greatest dancers. …

“A video clip featured in the ‘Addictive Ballet’ episode shows New York City Ballet principal dancer Ashley Bouder launching herself into a jeté so high she seems to leave Earth’s gravity. In midair she manages to turn herself 180 degrees before being caught by her partner, despite her momentum seeming to drift into his arms like a feather blown by a breeze.

“While watching the singular feat, Eden exclaims, ‘Call the news channels! We found a person who can actually levitate!’

“Jordan says the goal is to make viewers feel equipped to say, ‘I understand what’s going on, and I can appreciate it, and I can appreciate that this was done well.’

“ ‘Ballet Reign’ launched three years ago with modest hopes. The sisters sought a mere toehold in the YouTube universe, aiming for a narrow niche audience of fellow ballet fanatics (‘ballet nerds’) ages 16 to 25. To their initial astonishment, they have attracted a far wider viewership spanning all ages, even followers who hitherto had only scant interest in ballet. They have drawn in many young children and older adults, with those 65 and up now their third-largest subscriber group. …

“They comment with equal sophistication on ballet steps, choreography, history, musicology and the minute details of costume design. … Even actual professors laud the show.

“Nicolas Krusek routinely shows ‘Ballet Reign’ episodes in his classes for adults on ballet history at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. Krusek says what makes the show compelling ‘is the spirit of the videos, just the sense of joyousness and benevolence that they communicate, and a real sense of reverence for the art and the artists.’

“John Meehan, a Vassar College professor of ballet and former principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre, calls their episode on Igor Stravinsky’s ‘The Firebird’ ballet ‘amazing.’ …

“Julie Cronshaw, director of the Highgate Ballet School in London, says even for learned, longtime balletomanes the show opens up a whole new realm of understanding and appreciation. For those weighed down by adult concerns, watching an episode leaves them feeling uplifted. …

“The show also benefits from its high production values, with expertly edited clips from performances, clever blurbs of text and quirky cutaways to, say, a pole vaulter as an allusion to how high a dancer jumps.

“Episodes generally begin the same way, with the sisters sitting behind a table with an old-fashioned radio-days microphone nicknamed ‘Mike-elangelo’ between them. Eden kicks things off by announcing, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, this is Ballet Reign.’

“A flash of superimposed text identifies them as ‘*Very certified* extremely serious ballet experts.’ …

“Fans have long wondered about their credentials, including whether they are professional dancers themselves. On the show the sisters certainly come across as if they were. Surprisingly, the answer is no. …

“The oldest of four siblings, Jordan and Eden spent nearly all of their childhood in Ottawa. From the time they were small the sisters beelined toward becoming professional ballet dancers. Jordan says when she was 4 she got up at the crack of dawn every day and put in a VHS tape of a ballet class that her mother, Mary Lim, had bought. With fierce determination, she performed tendus and relevés along with the older students on the tape.

“Eden’s ballet fascination quickly followed. Mary says she soon realized she had no choice but to send them to ballet school.

“ ‘Obviously, if you look at a 4-year-old doing ballet at 7 a.m. every single day, you’re like, OK, let’s try lessons,’ Jordan says.

“By 2015, the girls needed a better ballet school than was available in Ottawa. Their parents packed up the family and moved to Dallas, where the pair enrolled in the Ballet Academy of Texas. Aside from ballet classes they were entirely homeschooled, but they had plenty of experience dancing in school performances, ballet competitions and with real companies. …

“The sisters say they convinced themselves they were using the show to take ‘a gap year’ while waiting out the pandemic. As the first months passed, and their audience widened and sent glowing feedback, they began to realize they were having a big impact and touching lives. It dawned on them that this wasn’t just an interlude but their calling.

“In an agonizing twist, just as the show had gotten underway, Jordan received word she had been accepted by a professional ballet company. She turned down the offer.

“ ‘It was one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make,’ Jordan says, but in retrospect the right one.”

More at the LA Times via MSN, here.