| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Movie Name | TAKE THE LEAD (2006) |
| Director | Liz Friedlander |
| Writer | Dianne Houston |
| Lead Actor | Antonio Banderas |
| Cast | Antonio Banderas, Rob Brown, Yaya DaCosta |
| Genre | Drama, Music |
| Release Date | April 7, 2006 (United States) |
| Duration | 1h 58m(118 min) |
| Budget | $30 million |
| Language | English |
| IMDB Rating | 6.6/10 |
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TAKE THE LEAD (not rated, PG-13) is based on the story of the man who started the New York City program that was the subject of last year’s popular documentary Mad Hot Ballroom. Over 7,000 elementary school students have participated in this competition, where students also learn self-esteem, communication skills and respect for others.
Dirty Dancing (1987) put ballroom dancing on the pop-culture radar. This film was a moral metaphor for class differences and coming of age in a world that had left Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers far behind. Baz Lurhmann’s quirky Strictly Ballroom (1992) used caricature to reveal that a father and son shared a passion for creative freedom. Shall We Dance, both the Japanese original (1996) and the Hollywood version (2004), used ballroom dancing to frame stories of men having a midlife crisis.
MTV’s Save the Last Dance (2001) integrated racial issues and coming of age with ballet and hip-hop. ABC’s Dancing With the Stars has been hugely popular, as were the Olympic pairs dancing on ice.
Perhaps British psychologist Havelock Ellis explained the attraction of ballroom best when he wrote, “Dancing is the loftiest, the most moving, the most beautiful of the arts because it is no mere translation or abstraction from life it is life itself.”
Take the Lead moves the story line to high school students. Pierre Dulaine (Antonio Banderas) is a ballroom-dance teacher who witnesses a young man named Rock (Rob Brown of Finding Forrester) destroying a car. Near the car, Dulaine finds an identification badge that belongs to Augustine James (Alfre Woodard), principal of a high school.
Dulaine returns the badge to the principal and offers to teach ballroom dancing to students in detention: One of the students is Rock. Dulaine challenges the kids with the chance to win a city-wide ballroom-dancing contest and they introduce him to hip-hop.
This could have been a much stronger film with better writing. More sequences of the actual ballroom dancing, especially with Banderas, would have helped. We never really care about the characters in the same way that Mad Hot Ballroom made us want to get up and cheer for the kids who won and cry for those who lost.
Yet Take the Lead reinforces what similar films have said Ballroom dancing is about communication, trust, optimism and relationships with others. And it is good for us. Some problem language.
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