Starz's dark dance drama challenges cast

Probably one of the most impressive things about Starz's dark new drama “Flesh and Bone” is Ben Daniels' powerful performance as a struggling ballet company's hard-driving artistic director.

In the eight-hour limited series that premieres Sunday, Nov. 8, Daniels stars as Paul Graydon, the bipolar founder and artistic director of the struggling American Ballet Company in New York City. A former dancer who sees himself as a nurturer of talent, Paul is feeling the heat from his company's financial woes and sees his salvation in the form of young Claire Robbins.

Claire, played by newcomer Sarah Hay, arrives at his doorstep a talented ballerina and a wounded soul, with an abusive home life in her history and a tendency toward self-destruction. The only way to bring her talent to full fruition, Paul feels, is to be tough with her — almost obsessively so.

His screaming fits of rage make it obvious that he's a grenade waiting to go off.

“He needs her because his company is in a financially precarious position and it's sort of on the downward spiral,” the 51-year-old actor says. “She walks in, she's like a miracle. He recognizes something in her that's broken that also is within him.

“She's a transcendent ballerina, and he knows that she can save his company,” he continues. “He falls in love with her the moment he sees her, which also means he hates her because he's now dependent on her, so it's a highly complicated, volatile situation.”

For Daniels, a pleasant, soft-spoken Brit, getting into the skin of the martinet American Paul took a lot of transformation, “both physically, and understanding where he's from emotionally as someone who is bipolar, has bipolar disorder, and how that affects his mood episodes within each scene because they're very extreme. And then obviously physically because he was a principal dancer who enjoyed great fame and stardom for years before a career-ending injury. I've never danced in my life, so that was intense to try and pull that off.”

For Hay, an experienced ballerina, trying her hand at acting meant risk, not only for possibly failing as an actor but also losing her place in the ballet world.

“When I was approached for the role, at first I really didn't think I was going to get it,” says Hay, who currently performs for the Dresden Semperoper Ballet in Germany. “So I thought, ‘OK, I'll give it a try and see what happens.' When I got it, it was exciting but also very nerve-racking because you can lose your status and your place in the dance world very easily. You are very easily replaced. It's kind of like a chess game for the director, you know.

“And, yes, so it was nerve-racking, but I decided, ultimately, it was the best decision for me in my life right now, and I couldn't have made a better decision.”