StreetDance

  

I absolutely love dance films and will watch anything that revolves around dance, of any sort but I  have some real problems with the 2010 UK film StreetDance. To begin with the plot is weak and there is almost no character development. I think the main problem with it is trying to translate a Hollywood film like Step Up into the English setting but some important factors are missing namely the racial and class differences. The reason dance films work so well in the US is the harping on racial differences and poverty stricken areas. The white girl falls for the black guy and they bring ballet and hip together. Always those two dances like there aren't any other type of dance. The main characters are striving for a chance to get into Julliard the prestigious dance school. This is what does not translate into StreetDance. Yes there are the hip hop dancers and the ballet dancers and besides for the main girl Carly and one of the ballet dancers it's a black dance crew against a white dance crew but it doesn't work the same. The class differences aren't as pronounced and the lack of character development doesn't help. Carly was irritating. She was the the stereotypical blonde white girl trying to dance with only an accent to make her unique but her accent didn't match her street attitude and the consequence being I didn't find her believable as a street dancer.

However, I did find the fact that the main white girl broke up with her black boyfriend and ended up with the white ballet dancer as an interesting turn of events since the couple at the end are more often than not an interracial couple. Perhaps if the ballet dancers were posher it would have worked better but I'm not sure that would really improve the film all that much to make it stand out from the rest of the dance films out there.

The one thing that makes this film unquie is the use of past winners and contestants of the ITV reality show Britain's Got Talent. Flawless, Diversity and George Sampson all provided dance performances that helped bring a little life to the film but not much. I was deeply disappointed with the quality of dancing. Being a dancer myself I judge dance routines rather harshly, not so much for technique but for entertainment and for most of the routines I was bored. Especially in the in the final number. The final dance performance is the big finale and usually gives the main protagonists the win but StreetDance didn't get it right. The beginning and  middle of the final dance was boring and too ballet. This wasn't helped by the fact that the crowd in the film were booing. By the end it managed to pick up a bit but the dance montage of them practicing before hand was better than the actual performance.

The highlight of the film was George Sampson who played Eddie. Eddie was the only character of real interest for me. He was funny, the scene of him and Carly dancing while making sandwiches was cute although unsanitary. He kept popping up wanting to dance but not given the chance to until the very end where he was used as a stall tactic so the ballet dancers could make it because of course their auditions for the royal ballet was scheduled for the same time at the streetdance competition. Another problem with the film since spending all that time rehearsing and practicing they wouldn't give it up for a street performance. The change in attitudes from the ballet dancers was confusing, one minute they were totally against it and the next they're giving up their auditions. Anyways the highlight and best dance routine was Sampson's, the moment the film was leading up to.

  

The final point I'd like to make is the end of the film was too abrupt. They finished their dance performance and celebrated without actually being told they had one, one of those:  it-doesn't-matter-if-we-win-because-we-danced-the-best-we-could-and-were-amazing type of moment and then the credits rolled without saying anything about the auditions but I guess since the characters didn't really matter at the beginning of the film there's no reason why they should matter at the end. The bottom line is this film is about street dancing but it lacks characters and really it lacks good dance routines. It was made original in 3D but I'm not sure that would make it any better and I don't have much hope for the sequel due out in 2012.