Corps

Season

1

Episode

1

Writer

Michael MacLennan

Director

Gary Fleder & Samir Rehem

Episode Guide
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Range of Motion

"In French, "corps" means "body", or what you might call a corpse. What all of us are fighting not to become. It's that last turn nobody wants to make when you die... or when enough people see you that way." ― Cassie Shore

"Corps" is the first episode and series premiere of Season 1 of Tiny Pretty Things, and the first episode overall.

Synopsis[]

Ballerina Neveah arrives at Chicago's famed Archer School to find cruel new rivals - and the disturbing truth behind her surprise acceptance.

Cast[]

Starring[]

Guest Starring[]

Alexandra Bokyun Chun as Maricel Park

Co-Starring[]

Ballet Corps[]

Mia Bowman
Sarah Maude Laliberte
Lucas De Marinis
Kirill Lordski
Evgeni Dokoukine
Lily McEvenue
Josh St. John
Emily Skubic
Ty Forhan

Episodic Voiceover[]

Cassie Shore: The power to fly. That’s what you dream of. There’s no better feeling. The truth is, you only fly for a second or a two before gravity takes back what you tried to steal. Because no matter how hard you work, how strong you are, or how thin you get… Gravity always wins. Of course, for any dancer, the higher you fly the more bone-shattering the landing that inevitably arrives. You have to be quick on your feet to adapt and deal with the unexpected. And in time, you learn two tricks that help you survive when there’s trouble in the spotlight. First, you never lose your smile. And second, you make damn sure you distract them with something else to look at.

They start with your bones, then your feet, frame, and flexibility. Your musicality, charisma, and deference. Then after they’ve taken you apart… they wanna see a spark. Always, something hurts. Somewhere on your body, there's pain, an ache that comes from pushing beyond what any person was ever meant to do. But there's strength in being part of a larger body. The corps de ballet.

There's a price you pay learning to fly. They steal your childhood, your family... leave you only with friends who hope every day that your Achilles will snap. And they never let you group up. So if you want to live a little... you gotta get creative. There's a twisted bargain to ballet. After all your hard work, your pain, and sacrifice, when you walk among mortals, you become a god. You're a perfect, worshipped fruition of the best the body can do. All-day, someone else controls what you eat, what you wear, how you move, and who you touch. You're strapped into the roller coaster with your fiercest competitors. But what nobody else sees is those rivals are also the only people who get you... who celebrate you for who you are and challenge you to do better. There's no other way to say it. They're your tribe.

When you make that leap, you fly alone. It can help if there are others on stage with you, that corps de ballet. They're the company's lowest, the corps. The hungriest, most vulnerable. Only there's power in that hunger. It drives you to take the crazy risks, to do what it takes to stand out from the crowd. You risk too much, fly too high... and you could end like up me, in this bed, clinging to life. In the corps, your job is to fit in, to be an invisible part of a larger body while others claim the spotlight. In French, "corps" means "body", or what you might call a corpse. What all of us are fighting not to become. It's that last turn nobody wants to make when you die... or when enough people see you that way.

Trivia[]

Ramon receives threatening texts from an unknown person claiming to be "someone you hurt". They want him to stay out of Paris forever.
Neveah finds the sweatshirt that Cassie's attacker wore the night of her incident in a metal bin on her balcony.
Neveah receives a white rose under her pillow with a note saying, "your turn to fly". Interestingly enough, Cassie's attacker was also holding a white rose.