Ballet doesn’t often happen like this. Not in shadowed back rooms or tucked-away industrial spaces. Not where the camera lingers so closely that breath and vulnerability become part of the choreography. But End of the World, a new film directed by Stephanie Gotch and co-choreographed by former American Ballet Theatre soloist Gabe Stone Shayer, refuses traditional framing—literally and figuratively. It is ballet unbound, both from the proscenium and from the expectations that have long shaped who gets to lead the narrative.

At its core, End of the World is a meditation on loss, identity, and transformation, drawn directly from Shayer’s personal experiences. After twelve years with ABT, Shayer walked away following his 2023 New York Times op-ed confronting the racial inequality he faced as a Black dancer in a predominantly white institution. His departure was not without consequence. “I spent a long time fighting against a fabricated narrative that my former director perpetuated through his treatment of me,” he reveals. “During and after the pandemic, I couldn’t stand the way I had been pigeonholed… I spoke out in the New York Times and in turn, was blacklisted. I don’t regret it, but I did end up suffering for a while.”