Reconsidering The Dance Movie Genre

I love dance movies. They’re my none-too-secret elixir of life. I’ll watch any of them. I’d call them ‘guilty pleasures’ if I felt at all guilty about it. When they work, they work beyond simply good choreography — they act as vital celebrations of an art form that Hollywood barely utilises anymore, and they often offer serious explorations on class, race, and the creative spirit.

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A great tradition

With the onset of sound in cinema, musicals — with their appropriate singing and choreography — became the dominant genre of the time. Cinema was always a visual medium, and in the 1930s audience’s jaws dropped to the elaborate kaleidoscopic patterns of Busby Berkeley’s Gold Diggers Of 1933 and Footlight Parade (both 1933), and the fancy footwork of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in Top Hat (1935) and Shall We Dance (1937).

In the ’40s, it was the water ballet of Esther Williams in Bathing Beauty (1944) and the fantasy of an invisible Moira Shearer in Powell & Pressburger’s The Red Shoes (1948) that inspired viewers. Gene Kelly’s dancing and Singin’ In The Rain (1950) and An American In Paris (1951) became huge hits in the ’50s, while the ’60s progressed heavily with Broadway adaptations like My Fair Lady (1964) and West Side Story (1961), which won choreographer and co-director Jerome Robbins an Academy Award.

Since the ’80s, however, dance musicals have leaned predominantly towards the youth, first with Fame (1980) and Flashdance (1983) and then the beginning of the hip-hop trend in Breakin’ (1984) and Beat Street (1985). These films put more attention on choreography to popular music soundtracks, but they all share a common thread in that they’re about the need to create and for artists to unite. Instead of acting like a brute, a young Kevin Bacon in Footloose (1984) unleashes his anger at the world through dance. In the maligned sequel Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo (1984), the power of dance is used to bring together a community. Dancing is life to them, and to cinema.

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Stepping Up to the Center Stage

It’s a trend that continues to this day, as filmmakers try to lure young audiences with thumping soundtracks and breathtaking dance moves. A perfectly choreographed dance routine still has the power to inspire awe, whether it’s a 1940s Ziegfeld kick line or a 2000s pop-and-lock routine. The best from the modern era is probably Step Up 2: The Streets (2008), which takes its initial set-up of a ‘school of the arts’ directly out of Alan Parker’s Fame and Nicholas Hytner’s Center Stage (2000), but features some of the greatest dance sequences ever committed to film, and makes actual statements about artists not confining themselves to ‘the rules’.

Laugh all you will, but the entire Step Up franchise has done this time and time again (four, to be precise). The following sequels — Step Up 3D, starring Australian Sharni Vinson, and Step Up: Miami Heat — are also fabulously entertaining with their exceptional blend of 3D and dance. They also have the distinct advantage of being alluringly bizarre and entirely insane.

Thankfully, the sub-genre is also known for featuring some of the most racially inclusive films being made, reflecting a more realistic representation of today’s society. Save The Last Dance (2001), a sort of granddaddy of the modern hip-hop dance film, actually has some very pertinent things to say about inter-racial relationships and class in between its crazy-skilled dances.

“We spend more time defending our relationship than actually having one,” remains a startlingly on-point observation, and even 12 years later it’s hard to think of a teen movie that speaks to these issues in such a mature fashion that’s also been able to reach such a wide audience. How She Move (2007) is another example, but with a scrappy independence that makes its dramatic shortcomings forgivable. We were just discussing grown up teen movies, and I feel foolish for having not mentioned them.

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Bad battles

Of course, for every good one, there’s a bad. Stomp The Yard (2007) is more about conforming than artistic freedom; Honey (2003) is hampered by a silly Missy Elliot plot and the personality-free zone that is Jessica Alba in a lead role; and I’ve almost never laughed so much in a cinema as when watching the hopeless Streetdance 2 (2012) in 3D, a British spin on the same old story. Meanwhile, You Got Served (2004) is arguably the worst of the lot; an openly racist one that represents the worst stereotypes of black and white people.

Now, you can add the new dance film, Battle Of The Year to the list of dance misfires, an all too familiar story about a ragtag group of underdog b-boys competing for a prize. Where director Benson Lee goes wrong is by giving these characters little motivation other than “we want to win”, and proceeds to fill his bland film with a lot of aggressive posturing and black culture appropriation (which, considering the lack of African Americans in the cast is rather alarming), unlikeable characters, and terrible dialogue. When one character is asked why he only watches others dance and doesn’t participate, he replies: “[Jewish people] are rhythmically challenged. We’re snipped of our swag at the circumcision.” Ew. And then there’s this LOL-worthy bon-mot: “The only thing the French revere more than carbs is dance.” You learn something new every day.

And then there’s the casting of Chris Brown, who you may recall is the worst human being ever. It doesn’t help that they have him playing an egotistical alpha-poser who’s quick to violence. It’s like the director was intentionally playing a prank on him, but it’s the audience that loses. Great dancer but terrible actor, which pretty much sums up the film as a whole. The dancing is frequently excellent, especially the big climactic ‘USA vs Korea’ battle, but it’s all in service of a story that’s been told at least a dozen times before, and done much better.

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Battle Of The Year is now showing in cinemas nationally, but maybe you should just rent Step Up 2: The Streets instead.

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Glenn Dunks is a freelance writer and film critic from Melbourne, and currently based in New York City. His work has been seen online (Onya Magazine, Quickflix), in print (The Big Issue, Metro Magazine, Intellect Books Ltd’s World Film Locations: Melbourne), as well as heard on Joy 94.9.