Thoughts on Strictly Ballroom

My first thought after I finished the movie was, "That's not bad for a dance movie". As a whole, the plot, characters and screenplay were better than a number of other dance movies that I have watched previously. Granted, it ended with a more cliche and over-exaggeration than was needed. But how dance movies usually ends anyhow, fancy and extravagant. I also liked the fact that the story revolved mostly around the dance. Too often have I watched dance movies that steered towards the romantic relationship between the main characters, and that the dance becomes something to show off their love instead.

Looking at the entirety of the movie, I presumed that the pressure to conform is high and intense. Consider this, the Federation dance has been established for years and everyone, literally all the ballroom dancers, adhered to its principles. Scott's mother, Shirley, and teacher, Les, were strong believers of it and pushed Scott to follow it and win the Pan-Pacific Championship. Thus, the group size and cohesive is immensely large, and thus, exerting great social pressure. Even so, Scott explicitly expressed his distaste for it, and resorts to his own dance styles in the competition. This may be due to his strong desires for personal independence and control. This can be seen in the opening scenes itself, where Scott showed off his unique style. As it stands, Scott would be considered as a nonconformist. So, what does society do to nonconformist? They rejected them, ostracized them, and demanded that they changed their ways. In this case, Shirley, Les and Barry would repeatedly attempt to convince Scott to change his ways. The media would be all over these sensational news, like vultures to a carcass, and spread all sorts of rumors and stories. Some to discredit him, others to raise questions. Scott would also never win the various Federation competitions that he joined, although we later discovered that there was a personal agenda at hand.

Building on that point, a number of people tried to get Scott to comply to their request. Shirley, Les and Barry kept giving various reasons regarding their request. As reasons are one of the factors that influences compliance, Scott seems to assume that these reasons are legititmate, and somewhat complies to them. Barry, in particular, used a technique that may be compared to the door-in-the-face strategy. He initially asked Scott to adhere to the conventional styles, with the reason of winning the championship. After which Scott responded of his disinterest, Barry follows up with the reasoning of winning it for his father. Doing it for his father was a smaller but more personal reason. Although the details of the strategy do not match directly to the door-in-the-face, such as the time interval between the request, the strategy did managed to elicit Scott's guilt and he gave in to Barry's request.

On a different topic, it was nice to see the relationship between Scott and Fran blossomed and grew. As the laws of attraction goes, we like those who reward us. On one hand, Fran was rewarded with being able to pair up with a champion-level dancer. As she later revealed, it was hard for Fran to muster the courage to ask Scott to be her dance partner, and even more so when trying to persuade him to give her a chance, being a beginner and all. From Scott's side, his reward came in the form of a partner who accepted both his unique dance steps and mentality. As it were, nobody else, neither his mother, his teacher, nor the Federation, approved of his nonconforming dance steps, although later we found out that there was one who did, of whom I shall not spoil the identity of. That being said, the similarities of their perspectives on unconventional dancing was perhaps a key attraction between the two. Fran also incorporated pasodoble steps into her dance. Here, we have the flamboyant and elegance of ballroom dancing, mixed with the rhythmic and energetic movements of pasodoble. A slight case of opposite attracts, of complementary contributions, but both still heading towards the same goal. With a few weeks of intense personal contact with each other, it was undoubtedly that the familiarity between increased and intensified as well .

As a dancer and musician, I consider myself as an artist. As such, I understood Scott's nonconformity  very well. I myself strive to be original and creative in my artistic expression, incorporating that mentality into all areas of my life. Indeed, it is most difficult, especially when many, even those close to you, do not support you. But we have no wish to be among the masses of white sheep heading the popular direction. Instead, we are prepared to be the black sheep that walks the path that no one else dared.