As Jen Graves writes in her review of Afternoon of a Faun: Tanaquil Le Clercq:

In the annals of ballet, Tanaquil Le Clercq is a mythical presence. She was "an elongated, stretched-out path to heaven," says fellow dancer Jacques d'Amboise. "Her limbs," the great Maria Tallchief explains, "never finished." But Nancy Buirski's documentary is really the first fount of actual information on the full life of the dancer who moved like a birch tree come to life. And this time, knowing more makes the story even better.

Tanny died in 2000 at age 71, but plenty of people considered her dead at 27. That's when, at the height of her powers, she contracted polio. She'd been standing in a vaccination line with her fellow dancers before their European tour, but she ducked out at the last second to preserve strength, saying she'd do it after the tour. She fell ill in Copenhagen and never danced again....

Here's the full review. Here are Afternoon of a Faun screening times. Watch the trailer after the jump.