Strictly Ballroom

Dance isn’t always strictly ballroom; Life is full of possibilities

            Not going to lie, it definitely took me awhile to understand the meaning of the title of this movie, Strictly Ballroom. And, I got to admit the choosing of this title was smart. Though the behaviors of the main character, Scott had much contradicted with the movie title, but it was done in a good way; audiences are likely to be reminded of the primal intention of dancing or the ways to live a life.

Isn’t dancing a way of expressing oneself and a form of art, but ironically, in the movie, people were tightly restricted by all the rules, refraining themselves from dancing in the ways they wanted, with freedom or free will as the basics. Yes, undoubtedly, one might easily argue that the rules and standards set for dancing competition were to provide a guideline for dancers on what kind of dances shall be presented, preventing themselves from performing something that was merely out of tune, and possibly putting other dancers into an unfair competition due to the unstandardized dance moves to be potentially presented. In the movie, Scott had clearly gone against the rules of the competition, yet he got the most intensive responds from the crowd, why? I think that it was because he put winning the competition as a least concern, but wanted to demonstrate something new, and most importantly — the initial purpose of dancing.

Therefore, should such behavior be encouraged? I will certainly say yes, but not necessary in all sort of contents. Indeed, art is the expression of one’s free will and creativity, intended to be appreciated of its beauty on its own unique way, so limiting people from presenting it in the ways they want will definitely kill its purpose and people’s creativity, but when it comes to a competitive sense, I think people should be competed against each other under a same category. For example, in the movie, Scott and Fran were dancing the Pasodoble that was not included in the competition format. I mean it was not wrong to dance Pasodoble, but it was rather unsuitable in a formal competition that did not include this kind of dance style. Based on the movie, perhaps Scott was lacking a platform other than the Pan Pacific Grand Prix to showcase his own dance steps or dance style, or he was just being egoistic and wanted to show off his crazy and crowd-pleasing dance steps, nonetheless, I think the main intention of the filmmaker was wanting the audiences to have the courage to do the things we want without letting the fears conquering us.

“Son, it was the dancing that mattered.

            We should have put that above everything else.

            We had the chance, but we were scared!

            We walked away! We lived our lives in fear!”

            These were the quoting of Scott’s father, Doug in the movie that seems to be meaningful to me. How many of us are actually living a life that is filled with fears that could be overcame; fear to lose, fear to be judged, fear to voice out, or fear of commitment. People are living on the outside, but dying on the inside; many people choose to handicap their will and dream themselves, or it is the society has been crippling the human nature and their unharmful free will to just to live out their life. Additionally, I think most of the Asians, including myself were brought up with the culture of disallowing ourselves from voicing out our opinions, let alone a good one or a bad one. Over the years, we are so afraid to do whatever we want, and fears have gradually engulfed our confidence.

            Life might not always be good to a person, but it is surely full with possibilities and not always be limited by all the rules and norms that obstruct the ways we should act and behave. It is definitely the time to change, people might not be born the same or equally, but each of us possess the chance to change; changing ourselves to become better ones, starting to do things that we want, showcasing the talents we have got, and not living our lives in fear.