Russian Pointe® featured in Bank of America video

Lights, camera, action! The Russian Pointe® offices felt like a Hollywood movie set on July 16 and 17 as a camera crew came to get a glimpse of how we operate for a short film for Bank of America.

Russian Pointe® was selected from thousands of small businesses around the country to be featured on in Bank of America’s Small Business of the Month series, where they profile a successful business on their website to inspire other budding entrepreneurs.

To prepare for the shooting, we invited several dancers between the ages of 4 and 7 and 11 and 14 to come to our studio to be models for the shoot.

When the girls arrived, the office was buzzing with excitement as cameramen, directors, assistants and makeup artists set up their equipment and prepared for the shoot.

First, the film crew interviewed Aleksandra Efimova, founder of Russian Pointe®, about the history of the company, the challenges she has faced in creating a start-up business, the company’s mission and philosophy and the success she has had as female entrepreneur.

“As a proud client of Bank of America, I was honored to be chosen as part of the series. Russian Pointe® would not be the company it is today without the support I have received from Bank of America throughout the years,” Aleksandra said. “The line of credit I got from Bank of America enabled me to continue to grow and expand my company, and getting a mortgage from Bank of America, in partnership with the Small Business Association, helped me acquire the Russian Pointe® headquarters, which provided me with the opportunity to establish a base for future growth.”

After the interview, the younger girls were dressed in tutus, leotards and tights and had the chance to listen to Aleksandra read one of the Growing Through Arts® storybooks.

Angela Neri, whose 6-year-old daughter, Gia, was one of the younger girls chosen to be part of the filming, says her daughter was delighted to be part of the day.

“She thought it was fantastic,” Neri said. “She loves ballet and she loved meeting the lady who makes ballerina shoes.”

Later that day, the older girls had their makeup done before putting on their pointe shoes for some action shots.

“It was the coolest thing you’ve ever seen,” said Nadine Zimmermann, whose 11-year-old daughter, Jadyn, came all the way from Phoenix to participate in the filming. “She reached down to tuck her ribbons in and there were cameras there.”

Then, the older dancers were whisked off to the Joffrey Ballet where they had a private dance class with Alexei Kremnev, Artistic Director of the Joffrey Ballet Academy.

The girls were awestruck as they tried to follow the dance steps that Kremnev was showing them as 15 cameramen and assistants filmed the scene and a helicopter was flew overhead, taking aerial shots of the building from above.

Zimmermann says her daughter, who was already a huge fan of Russian Pointe®, was thrilled to be at the center of it. “They were really on top of the world,” she said. “Just the whole experience was more than we could have imagined.”

The next day, the crew returned to the offices to capture Russian Pointe® employees in action during the busy work day to give audiences a sense of how Russian Pointe® operates and how customers’ orders are processed with individual care and attention so ballerinas around the country receive their shoes on time.

Aleksandra said she was honored to be selected for this unique opportunity.

“I was truly humbled that Bank of America chose to feature me and my business out of thousands around the country,” she said. “I hope this video will be inspirational for business owners who are immigrants like me or business owners who are women and show them that their dreams really can come true.”