Take the Lead

Take the Lead (2006) is a movie, "inspired by the life of Pierre Dulaine", about a concerned citizen who uses ballroom dancing and etiquette as a form of character education for students in a violent inner city neighborhood. It also shows that the dance music of the early to mid 20th century has much in common with late 20th and early 21st century hip hop. The basic premise is that, those who have, are in a position to share with those who do not. This is underlined by the encouragement Dulaine gives to white, wealthy Caitlin: "Do you like to dance?" "Yes." "Then you were made to dance." She passes on the same encouragement to a black, overweight boy (Monster). Another basic premise is that each person must take responsibility for their lives, rather than giving up, and that this is essential to education:

• "To do something, anything, is hard. It's much easier to blame your father, your mother, the environment, the government, lack of money, but even if you find a place to assign the blame, it doesn't make the problems go away."

The movie teaches conservative principles about relations between the sexes:

• "Now, if your 16-year-old daughter is strong and secure and trust (sic) herself, how likely is she to let some idiot knock her up? And if your son can learn to touch a girl with respect, how will he treat women throughout his life?

Plot

Pierre Dulaine, the owner of an upscale dance school, encounters a troubled youth (Rock) one evening and decides to make the local high school principal an offer of help. Most of the movie is about the progress of this class and the general effect on student morale and deportment, but it also has three sub-plots. Rock is a juvenile delinquent who is friendly with a gang of thieves. A black girl has a mother who brings home men. A white girl (Caitlen) is nervous about her upcoming cotillion. Meanwhile the whole class has a chance to participate in a city-wide dance competition.

Dulaine defends the universality of love against the haste to "get down to the ill na-na". To overcome the objections of jaded students to what they see as the staid music of Ira and George Gershwin, he brings in a star pupil and demonstrates with her a sizzling hot tango.

Themes

It's ugly to indulge in disdain and dismissive speech, regardless of one's social strata. Dulaine labors to teach the young people to say, "You're welcome", rather than "Uh huh" as a way of showing their sincerity.

Evaluation

Although the story is in the conservative mold of an educated, middle-class person giving of themselves to elevate the less fortunate, it contains one flaw: Dulaine tells one pupil, "You need to dance for yourself, not for anybody else." This was in response to excessive pressure from the pupil's parent, which was backfiring and hurting the pupil's confidence. But the correct Christan answer would be about enjoying her God-given gift as well as giving joy to others by employing that talent for their benefit.

Legacy

A title panel in the movie asserts:

Since "Dancing Classrooms" was created by Pierre Dulaine, it has grown to involve 42 instructors and more than 12,000 students in 120 New York City public schools. It is currently expanding across America.

External links

• Groucho Reviews tears into the film for promoting the students from 5th grade to high school, and other liberties taken with reality