'Flesh and Bone' Trailer: The Ballet World Is Brutal in the New Starz Drama

If you thought the ballet world was as refined and genteel as the graceful dancing glimpsed onstage… think again. The new Starz series Flesh and Blood is out to expose the darkness and misery behind all the pirouettes and plies. Created by Breaking Bad writer and executive producer, Moira Walley-Beckett, the New York-based series follows a talented, but troubled new fish (Sarah Hay) who has been thrown into the competitive pond that is the American Ballet Company — which appears to be a fictionalized version of the prestigious American Ballet Theatre. There, she encounters jealous dancers, punishing training sessions, and an artistic director (Ben Daniels) whose moods appear to change on a dime. The show also features 22 actual ballerinas in supporting roles, as well as a 13-minute original ballet created by former Royal New Zealand Ballet artistic director, Ethan Stiefel. (Is it called “Negro y Azul: The Ballad of Heisenberg” by any chance?)

Flesh and Bone premieres Sunday, November 8 on Starz.