Engaging story of dance being an outlet and escape for NYCity high school kids
Pierre Dulaine brought ballroom dancing to elementary schools in New York City. That led to two films. One was a documentary 2005’s Mad Hot Ballroom the other was 2006’s Take The Lead with Antonio Banderas as Dulaine. The two movies could not be more different.<br /><br />Take The Lead puts Dulaine in a tough urban high school taking over a detention room full of delinquents. Despite his situation and the cynicism of the school principal Augustine James (Alfre Woodard) he doesn’t give up. When he tells the kids that he will be teaching them ballroom dancing they laugh at him and walk off. The next time he plays George Gershwin songs until they get so fed up they agree to line up. He tries to break them up into couples for dancing but that again leads to trouble. It’s not until he brings one of his very young and sexy students to class and they lay down a dance routine that knocks everyone out that they listen. He begins to teach them all the traditional dances like the Fox Trot and the Waltz and even gets them into a competition.<br /><br />There are larger issues going on as well. Such as violence, dead relatives and social class. The theme is that dance allows people to escape from their problems.<br /><br />The film is really great overall. The dancing is exciting and engaging. The characters are good and try to add some depth to the usual inner city kids’ tropes. There’s comedy as well. This is obviously a far cry from what Dulaine actually encountered when he started his program, but it’s a good story nonetheless.<br />C
The movie title "Take the Lead," available on Movies & TV, has received an average rating of 4.7 from 4004 reviewers. 
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This title falls under the categories of Movies & TV, Featured Categories, DVD and Drama. 
The additional details include the following in key-value format :
 {"Aspect Ratio": "1.85:1", "Is Discontinued By Manufacturer": "No", "MPAA rating": "PG-13 (Parents Strongly Cautioned)", "Product Dimensions": "7.5 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches; 3.2 Ounces", "Item model number": "N10363", "Director": "Liz Friedlander", "Media Format": "Color, NTSC, Closed-captioned, Full Screen", "Run time": "1 hour and 58 minutes", "Release date": "January 8, 2008", "Actors": "Antonio Banderas, Alfre Woodard, Dante Basco, Lauren Collins, Elijah Kelley", "Subtitles": "English, Spanish", "Producers": "Mark Kaufman, Christopher Godsick, Matt Moore, Michelle Grace, Luke Ryan", "Language": "English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), Unqualified, English (Dolby Digital 5.1)", "Studio": "WarnerBrothers", "Writers": "Dianne Houston", "Number of discs": "1"}

Here is a brief synopsis of the title : Take The Lead (DVD).