Movie: "Take the lead" (#234, Topic D)

Having spent the day at the Library of Congress doing research, I decided to give my brain a rest for the remainder of the day by taking on our community's free movie in the evening. It is on ballroom dancing; I thought it would do nicely. But I was wrong. The movie's focus was on students in a mixed neighborhood; it depicted, very quickly, the burdens these young people had to ensure: (1) a young man, whose father was an alcoholic unable to hold onto a job; he hit his son (whose part-time earning supported the family) hard when the latter came home -- after work to find the refrigerator empty without food -- and dared to suggest that his father sober up; (2) another young man, whose elder brother died on account of a drug overdose; and (3) a young woman who had to do her homework while waiting for the metro, since, upon returning home, she would have to take care of her younger sister while their single mother worked overtime to make ends meet. The thought occurred to me that these young people lack (1) self-confidence, (2) attention, and (3) opportunities, which may all be attributed to their poor family and community environment. In came Pierre Dulane, a professional dancer (the movie is based on his real-life experiences), who gave these youngsters attention and opportunties (to which they pooh-poohed at first), and through which he built up their self-confidence -- by teaching them ballroom dancing. With these students' peer performance at 4th percentile level, spending valuable extracurricular time on ballroom dancing attracted unacceptable performance rating (for the school's principal) from the school system's evaluator, as well as no-confidence from their parents. (I thought to myself: were I a parent in that school, I probably would have reacted similarly.) Then came the punch line. The dance instructor, using the principal (an open-minded woman with no experience in ballroom dancing) as his partner, said, after a brief demonstration of basic ballroom steps, that ballroom dancing builds up first, trust; then, cooperation; and then, dignity. Very thought provoking (and I thought I was able to relax for some 90 minutes!). In another scene, a fellow student said to his dancing partner: you look different when you dance. To which she said: I feel calm; I feel peace. Very sobering. The movie features dozens of professional dancers; the three tango dances are original and beautifully choreographed; and, of course, the music is equally beautiful. After the movie was over, I thought I needed to jot down my impressions -- time to bed is the time not to think.