Dance Movies. The formula is always reassuringly predictable: guy meets girl; one of them can dance and one of them can’t. The one who can teaches the one who can’t and they fall in love. Strictly Ballroom is no exception.
It is notoriously difficult to get people to watch this film. ‘Is it actually good though?’ they ask wearily as I grind them into submission, ‘or is it just that you like it because it’s a dance movie?’ Ok, it is a film about dancing, yes, it is a love story and granted, it’s unapologetically kitsch (so far, so unappealing) but ‘Strictly Ballroom’ is so more than your average sequin fest. While the plot follows the boy-meets-girl pattern (frustrated dancer Scott takes on the ballroom dancing federation with beginner partner Fran in a bid to dance their own steps competitively) there is a lot more to this film that first meets the eye.
Shot partly as a mockumentary, director Luhrmann explores the surreal scene of competitive ballroom dancing in early nineties Australia. It’s fast moving, luridly bright and undeniably hilarious. The first shot of the film, showing elegantly silhouetted dancers waltzing around the competition floor to the strains of ‘The Blue Danube,’ is violently broken into by a raucous shout from the crowd, ‘Come on number 100!’ The illusion of tranquillity is shattered. This sets the tone for the whole film: the supposed refinement of ballroom dancing is constantly juxtaposed with the average day-to-day lives of the amateur competitors who inhabit the supposedly glamorous world of competitive dance.
This film is that is so real: romantic moments occur in the most unromantic places, such as Scott and Fran’s secret practice above his parents’ dance studio. As the couple become immersed in the dance we forget that they are dancing on top of a shabby looking rooftop in the same shot as a washing line full of socks.
There is a red glimmer light that acts as a backdrop to the unseen performance. When the camera pans back we see it is nothing but a Coca Cola sign. There is magic mixed with the mundane, elegance mixed with eccentricity. At times Luhrmann is mocking the world he is exploring, but it is also desperately sincere. You wouldn’t expect it to be touching and beautiful, but it is.
