CHLOE is dreading BOBBI’S birthday weekend. In their college dance program these two women were inseparable, but they’ve been estranged ever since Chloe quit dancing and Bobbi moved out of the city.

When Chloe arrives at Bobbi's country house, she realizes to her horror that she's the only guest. Now she has to absorb Bobbi’s manic, theatrical personality on her own. Did Bobbi plan it this way?

Despite mounting anxiety, Chloe trudges through the woods to help Bobbi film a dance solo, part of a new project she’s calling “Friend or Foe.” It’s clearly a commentary on their strained relationship, but Chloe — just trying to get through the weekend without any drama — does her best to play along. Then Bobbi suddenly turns the camera on her, forcing years of buried tensions to spill out.

Chloe is a people pleaser and perfectionist. She’s a former dancer who gave it up long ago and has been in a deep rut ever since — like a veteran who never quite adjusted to civilian life. Seeing dance or just being around it is a major trigger. So this visit to Bobbi, who lives and breaths dance, is as anxiety-inducing as her constant ballet nightmares. She has yet to realize that in order to move on she needs to reconnect with the joy dance used to bring her and also face the reasons she decided to quit. Bobbi just might be the one person who can help.

For Bobbi, dance is life. She’s had to fight other peoples’ notions about what a dancer should be or look like — but she’s managed to stick it out, probably because she couldn’t give two sh*ts about anyone else’s idea of what “success” is. Her theatricality, which is both alluring and annoying, masks her vulnerability and loneliness. We catch glimpses of it when she’s performing her choreography. She wants to seduce Chloe back into her world — to collaborate again or just because she misses her — but she’ll have to confront her friend’s grief and anger first.

“A dancer dies twice — once when they stop dancing, and this first death is the more painful.”

— Martha Graham

When I started developing this project a few years ago, it had been well over a decade since I boxed up all my pointe shoes for good. And yet I was still haunted by my decision to leave dance behind.

From the age of 3, my entire life had revolved around it. My obsession started with a VHS tape of Baryshnikov's 1977 Nutcracker. I was enraptured by the magic, artistry, and athleticism. By age 11, I was commuting into New York City every day to train at the School of American Ballet and performing at Lincoln Center in front of thousands of people. Around that time, I was featured in a documentary called Living a Ballet Dream - available as a bonus feature on the Barbie in The Nutcracker DVD!

The life I wanted to live seemed almost inevitable.

But it didn’t turn out that way. A domineering teacher made me dread ballet class, so in college I decided to pursue modern dance and choreography. But eking out a living in this unfamiliar world seemed implausible. So at age 22, after several years of waffling, I finally quit.

I channeled my energy into a career in film and became a successful documentary editor. I fell in love and got married. But no matter how convinced I was that leaving dance behind was the right decision, it had left a void I just couldn’t figure out how to fill.

Then I started talking to other former dancers. I discovered that this kind of struggle was both incredibly common and rarely talked about. One person told me that leaving dance was the greatest heartbreak of her life. Another said he still dreams about dancing multiple times a week. Training so hard for so long leaves a deep mark that’s impossible to shake.

FRIEND OR FOE is my attempt to give all these feelings life. And I hope that by sharing it with audiences, it can open a door to catharsis for other former dancers and for anyone who has experienced the grief of giving up or losing out on a dream.

With a wealth of experience spanning film, television, live theater, and dance, our team is well equipped to fully realize the vision for this project. 

Director Regina Sobel has spent over a decade writing, editing, and supervising award-winning films like HUMAN NATURE (nominated for three Emmys, including Best Editing) and THE QUEEN OF BASKETBALL (2022 Oscar-winner for Best Short Documentary). 

Lead actress Arielle Goldman has appeared in Steven Soderbergh's THE KNICK and Amazon’s THE MARVELOUS MRS. MAISEL and recently starred in the NYC premiere play THE BOOKSTORE at 59E59 Theaters. 

Actress and Choreographer Julia Eichten was a founding member of L.A. Dance Project and is a current member of AMOC* (American Modern Opera Company). Her work has been shown at the Lincoln Center, the Joyce Theater, and The Gardens of Versailles.

Cinematographer Rafael Roy shot the Oscar-nominated short I AM READY, WARDEN and the 2026 Sundance documentary AMERICAN DOCTOR. 

Producer Daniel Carbone has had a hand in projects as diverse as the Gotham Award-nominated microbudget feature WE’RE ALL GOING TO THE WORLD’S FAIR to the Oscar-shortlisted documentary FAYA DAYI.

Our team has deep roots in documentary filmmaking, which will inform our grounded, naturalistic approach to capturing Chloe and Bobbi's relationship — one that is both strained and deeply intimate. In the dance studio, these two women watched each other experience everything from wild ambition to public humiliation. Chloe can still smell Bobbi’s sweat. Bobbi can still picture Chloe’s stubborn ingrown toenail. The production design will offer glimpses of this shared history, and intimate, handheld cinematography will capture their subtle glances and gestures, like how they look at each other's bodies and anticipate each other's words.

MOOD BOARD

At the same time, we're excited to embrace the freedom that fiction allows. We've planned a surreal dream sequence and two original dances choreographed by Julia Eichten. This is where we push into a more visceral, heightened experience — where an unholy mixture of trauma and joy forces these women back together.

It's always bothered me how dance is portrayed on film. Dancers are shown to be masochistic, competitive, and f*cked up. They are those things, but there's so much more that's never explored:

The primal desire to move to music. The community. The wildly impractical dream of dedicating both your life and your body to making art.

"Do it big, do it right, and do it with style."

― Fred Astaire

We've spent the last year honing the script and putting together our team. Now we're finally ready to go into production.

We plan to shoot this film over 4 days this summer near my home in New York’s Hudson Valley — and we’re going to need a lot of help! Friends and neighbors are donating locations, costumes, props, and their time and energy to help bring this project to life. But we still have to pay our cast and crew, rent gear, and feed and house everyone.

And once the filming is done, we need money for editing, sound design, color grading, and music licensing.

Here’s how it all breaks down:

• Cast & Crew - $13,000
• Equipment - $3,000
• Food, Travel, and Lodging - $7,000
• Props, Locations & Insurance - $2,000
• Post-Production - $5,000

All told, we think it’s going to cost $30,000 to make this film a reality. And we want to raise half of that budget here on Seed&Spark. With your help, we'll have the resources to do it with style.

And if you can't contribute financially, you can still help by spreading the word and being a part of the community we're building.

• Follow this campaign — if we reach 250 followers on Seed&Spark, our project will be eligible for some free services.
• Share it with anyone who you think this story might resonate with. Is there a former dancer in your life?
• Follow us @friendorfoefilm on Instagram for behind-the-scenes footage, updates on our progress, and stories from other former dancers. We'll see you there!

FRIEND OR FOE is the start of something much bigger.

We're developing a feature film — from Chloe's beginnings as a serious ballet dancer to her finding a new path in life. And it will be inspired by the community of former dancers we hope to cultivate during this campaign and through screenings of the completed short. We're gathering stories so the world is as authentic as possible. Send us yours on Instagram at @friendorfoefilm. You don't have to be a former dancer. If there was anything you worked hard at for years before leaving it behind we want to hear about it.