Strictly Ballroom (1992)

Strictly Ballroom is a romantic-comedy old film from the year 1992. This is really an old film to me because it's even older than myself (I was born in year 1993) - which makes me wonder how old are the hot actor and actress now. Anyways, the dancers in the film were really amazing so kudos to them *claps*

The film is about a ballroom dancer named Scott who struggled to establish his own personal dancing style at the Pan-Pacific Grand Prix Dancing Championship despite the disagreement from his parents, friends, dance partner and the entire dance community. During the first dance competition which was shown in the film, Scott and his partner lost to a rival team due to the fact that Scott changed his dance moves out of a sudden - moves which did not comply to 'strictly ballroom'. After the first experience, Scott wanted to keep trying new moves because he wanted to be different and he wanted to dance to his own style in the final competition. Since his partner Liz Holt left him, he secretly trained with a beginner dancer named Fran, whom no one liked to talk to at the studio. However, his mother, Shirley (former champion) and coach, Kendall have tried so many ways in persuading Scott to not change his moves if he wanted to win in the Pan-Pacific. Even the president of the Australian Dancing Federation, Barry Fife tried so many (evil) ways in stopping Scott. Despite his passion and the only support from Fran, Scott struggled quite a lot just for being different throughout the entire film. 

Did his mother, coach, friends and basically the entire dance community succeed in persuading Scott in the end?

What was wrong with being different than the others in the first place?

First of all, there was no wrong with being different than the others in the first place.

Scott Hasting is the first character in the film whom I really admired in the beginning. Today we live in a world where being different is quite similar to being labelled as cool. But to the community in the film, or perhaps to the society during the early 90's (since this was so long ago - even before I was born), being different could be something unacceptable because it was violating the social rules. So what people were supposed to do during those times, especially in the film? CONFORM. People were expected to conform. To be fair, nobody in the film realized that they had been conforming all the time until someone like Scott did something different than the others and then they realized that it was not okay.

 However, Scott was the only one who dared to be different and who did not want to conform to 'strictly ballroom'. I really do not understand the other dancers in the film who viewed new steps to ballroom dancing as something horrible (as if it was something bad like a disease or a virus which could be infectious). It was quite funny to me when Barry Fife was so anxious about the rumours of new steps and he was eagerly trying to turn down all the rumours as if it was something tremendously horrible (where in fact discovering new steps to dancing could be a big thing here in the society nowadays). It was also quite nonsensical as well when the dance coaches mentioned that they couldn't introduced the new steps unless they knew how to dance it. 

Perhaps the reason for wanting Scott and everyone else to conform to the existing old dance steps was because they were afraid of change. 

Similarly to Barry Fife, if Scott managed to win the Pan-Pacific with his new steps, it could mean that the people in the dance community would start innovating new steps just like Scott did and everyone would be different - Ballroom Dancing would no longer be the same again. So what's best for everyone? CONFORM, CONFORM and CONFORM!

There was a scene in the film where Scott asked his mother a good question. He asked, "What was wrong with the way I danced?" That was true, what was wrong? There was nothing wrong at all, Scott. The only thing wrong was that the entire dance community was afraid of being different! 

I liked how Scott told Fran about dancing. He told her that he didn't care about winning at all, he just wanted to dance with her. That is actually very rational. Dancing is supposed to be a creative activity where one enjoys doing. 

Dancing isn't about complying to steps - it's about dancing with your heart.

In one of Barry's (evil) plans in stopping Scott, he told Scott about the not-so-true truth about his parents. Barry told Scott about how his father, Doug used to be so obsessed with the unorthodox dance steps that he even lost the Pan-Pacific. Knowing about this truth, Scott wanted to win for his parents so he ended up complying to what the others had always wanted him to do. Note that he didn't obey Barry or the 'rule' of dancing set by the community because he was willing to. He just wanted to do it for the sake of his parents.

Scott wanted to win for his parents once... but he'd hurt Fran instead...

Wait, so who was Fran again?

Fran, a beginner dancer at Kendall's dance studio. A person who had never danced with a partner before and no one actually cared anything about her until Scott was looking for a new partner. Personally, Fran is the second character that I admire the most in this film. The very first time when she actually had a real dialogue in the film was the scene where she confessed to Scott about wanting to be his new partner. She was really brave to be able to do that. Why? Because everyone knew that she was a 'noob' in the entire studio. But she believed in herself that she'd be able to do it if she'd tried. Similar to Scott, she also believed in innovation of new steps to the current dance - she introduced pasodoble steps in their routine. She is also one who dared to make a difference! Perhaps, the reason she was so keen to be different together with Scott was because that was the only chance for her to shine (because once again, no one actually cared about her existence in the studio).

Anyways...

Scott thought that by complying to what the society wanted of him, he would make his parents happy by giving them what they couldn't have before - being the champion. So he changed his mind just before the Pan-Pacific Competition to dance the conventional steps and it'd hurt Fran's feelings because he abandoned her. But little did Scott know that what Barry told him was not completely true! 

Dough had always wanted to tell Scott to follow his heart and do whatever that he thought was right for him. It was true that Dough was exactly like Scott, he too wanted to dance his own steps but during that time, he was too timid to follow his heart and Barry had convinced Shirley to dance the conventional steps. Therefore, Dough and Shirley ended up conforming to the rest of the society but they lost the competition anyways. 

Due to the fact that Dough was forced to conform and comply to the society years ago, he told his son that all these years, they were living in fears. 

So this time, Dough wanted what was best for his son, he asked for Scott to dance the way he wanted to dance with Fran. When Scott did, not only that Scott felt a sense of accomplishment with Fran, Dough seemed pretty satisfied, as if his wish for all these years had finally came true...

Not to mention, a lot of people at the competition, both dancers and audiences fell in love with Scott and Fran's dance! So it was a happy ending for Scott and Fran after all...

The moral of the film that I'd learned is...

Never be afraid of making a change or simply being different than everybody else. Conformity isn't always a bad social influence, but it is definitely not good to let conformity get in the way of achieving something which we believe in.