Take the Lead

Ealasaid/ April 10, 2006/ Movie Reviews and Features

Directed by: Liz Friedlander
Starring: Antonio Banderas, Rob Brown, Alfre Woodard, Yaya DaCosta
Rated: PG-13 for thematic material, language and some violence.
Parental notes: This is an accurately rated film. It’s not aimed at the Kindergarten-and-younger set, and they probably wouldn’t enjoy it. Teens and preteens are likely to have a good time, though, especially if they’re interested in dancing.

Pierre Dulaine is a professional dancer who started the Dancing Classrooms project in New York. The documentary “Mad Hot Ballroom” followed several classes of children in the program from their first tentative dance steps to the inter-school competition at the end of the program. Now “Take the Lead” offers a dramatization of the program’s beginnings, helmed by first-time director Liz Friedlander and starring Antonio Banderas. It’s yet another film about rough inner-city kids learning self-respect from a passionate teacher, but the infectious good humor and catchy music make it easy to be drawn in.
When the film opens, ballroom dance instructor Pierre Dulaine (Banderas, “The Legend of Zorro”) witnesses a frustrated teen taking his anger out on his principal’s car with a golf club. Rather than turn the boy in, Dulaine goes to see the principal (Alfre Woodard, “Something New”). Now, Dulaine is a gentleman, the sort of fellow who stands up when a woman walks in the room. Banderas plays him with a lilting Spanish accent and a twinkle in his eye, and it’s almost impossible not to like the fellow. Banderas’ well-earned status as a Hollywood sex symbol certainly helps: he’s lithe and graceful even when he isn’t dancing, and although Banderas isn’t a formally trained dancer he sure burns up the floor. Principal James, in contrast, has been ground down and although she cares a great deal about her students she’s sick of seeing them gunned down in gang violence or dropping out to spend the rest of their lives in poverty. She’s a tough broad, with plenty of bristliness from her years on the front lines of education.
Upon learning how hard things are for the students, Dulaine insists that he wants to help. James eventually accepts his offer and puts him in charge of the perpetual detention a group of the worst kids in school have been assigned to. There’s Rock (Rob Brown, “Coach Carter”), who is determined to graduate and have a better life than his alcoholic parents, if he can stay out of the gang his late brother was involved with. There’s Kurd (Jonathan Malen, “Mean Girls”), a redheaded wanna-be gangsta who is protective of his reputation as a player. Lahrette (Yaya DaCosta) is helping to raise her younger siblings while their mother supports them through prostitution. The rest of the kids in the classroom have similar stories. For them, life looks nearly hopeless. Some of the young actors are professionally trained dancers, but not all of them, and the dance scenes are fascinating. Once the movie is really rolling, the kids come up with a blend of ballroom and hiphop, both in terms of music and the moves themselves, and that’s a lot of fun to watch.
Dulaine sets out to teach the kids dancing, much to the amusement of the school faculty. This wouldn’t be much of an inspirational film if his passion didn’t persuade the kids to take a chance on themselves, and soon they’re determined to go up against the serious dancers from around the city at a major competition. The dance sequences are thrilling, both the smoldering ballroom dancing of Dulaine and the shimmying hiphop of the high schoolers.
“Take the Lead” doesn’t diverge from the standard inspirational genre to which it belongs, but it offers a fun take on the old story and makes an excellent case for why the real-life Dancing Classrooms project is so important. Kids who learn to ballroom dance learn to respect themselves and each other and to interact with the opposite sex without sex or violence even being on the table, and both of those are lessons well worth teaching.
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