The Company

Inside a bustling ballet company, The Company follows a tight knit troupe as personal and artistic ambitions collide behind the curtain. The story shines a light on a gifted young dancer whose ascent toward principal status promises both triumph and pressure. Amid rehearsals, rivalries, and flirtations, veterans mentor emerging stars while the art form's discipline tests loyalties and resolve. Altman's crosscutting approach brings the backstage world into sharp relief, sketching intimate portraits of dancers balancing dreams with the realities of touring life. The film captures the ritual of training, performance anxiety, and the fragile line between glory and exhaustion, without leaning on a single hero arc. It animates a broader cast of characters whose private dramas illuminate the chorus of the company as a whole.

Directed by Robert Altman and released in 2003, The Company draws on an original screenplay credited to Neve Campbell and Barbara Turner, weaving an ensemble ballet world rather than adapting a single source, with a strong sense of backstage detail.

Critics noted Altman's knack for juggling many lives at once, turning backstage routines into a mirror of personal longing. The film grapples with ambition and mentorship, the fragility of youth, and the price of precision in art and love, adding aging and the tension between performance and private lives.

The Company has a modest footprint among dance films and Altman's late era works. It is not known for iconic lines or famous scenes, but it contributes to a broader cultural conversation about the pressures of performance, the human cost of artistic pursuit, and backstage vulnerability.

The film did not receive major award nominations and did not win notable prizes on its initial release. Some critics praised Altman's orchestration of a large cast and Campbell's nuanced performance, while others argued the storytelling sometimes slowed in service of mood.