“Take the Lead”

By Joe Donato, all rights reserved, © 2007

    In the true story of Pierre Dulaine, it wasn't high school kids that were learning to ballroom dance, but just about everything else in this movie is true:  the New York school system didn't want anything to do with his dancing program at first. They truly didn't believe it would "take" with the kids, especially not the detention kids! But that is all they were willing to let Pierre work with as an experiment. And at first, that is exactly what happenned. The kids laughed at the Foxtrot and the Waltz. They had their own definition of dancing, and though it may have involved floorcraft, things like leading, following, frame, poise, posture, etc. were NOT in their vocabulary. Pierre had to convert them.

Interesting enough. On the behind-the-scenes bonus materials. The filmmaker tells of her experience with the first Hollywood studio that offered to make this film. They said they love the story, but asked her if she could change Pierre's character from a man in his 40s, to a sexy young woman in her 20s.  She declined. I'm glad she did.  The inter-generational, age and race boundaries in this movie are universal as much as they are true.

And Kudos to Antonio for truly portraying and aging man in the film. The makeup, wardrobe and lighting department could have done a lot to make him look younger, but that would have only hindered the story. Age is one of those social barriers that dance transcends. It is one of the few places I see people of all ages interacting joyfully and freely with each other in a social setting.

So how does Pierre finally get the kids attention?  With an Argentine Tango sequence. I have to admit from an editor's standpoint, they did a great job at capturing the intensity of this dance.  On the DVD extras, you can watch all four camera angles filmed simultaneously. When you watch the edited version, you'd swear there were twice as many cameras filming this. Normally I am a purist when it comes to filming dance scenes. It's very much like filming fights scenes, or chase scenes. Too many ingredients and you spoil the scene. Too much flashy editing can be a dead giveaway that you don't really have any “real action” to work with in the first place. Flashy editing usually tells me that the dancers/fighters/stuntmen don't really cut it: it's just an illusion.  But not so in this case. Antonio and his partner really really really know how to dance!

And so do these kids! In the end they do a great job of showcasing their own artistic flavor of hip hop and the audience has been taken on a journey through several cultures. In the closing dance credits sequence, we see them integrate what they’ve learned in their ballroom dancing, into their hip-hip. If you’re a hip-hop devotee, this movie will give you the opportunity to appreciate the ballroom stuff to a new level. If you’re a ballroom aficionado, this movie will give you the opportunity to start respecting hip-hop. At no point does the filmmaker ask any of us to abandon one tradition for another. Instead it challenged me: to respect the Hip-Hop!

By the end I concluded that the “dungeon kids” are no different than the Argentinians when it comes to hearing the music and doing what it tells their heart to do. These kids are just as much innovators as Pierre! The documentary “Mad Hot Ballroom” puts Pierre’s refined Dancing Classrooms program on display. Since then the program has been embraced by cities all over America (including Philadelphia!). But this movie tells the story of its origin. This one is a must see.

Know of any other Hip Hop movies that are a must see for non hip-hop enthusiasts like myself? email me.

watch the Tango sequence on Youtube

learn more about this film at the internet movie database

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