Born to Dance at TIFF

“Auckland, New Zealand may seem a world away from the heart of hip-hop culture in the US, but the local dance crews featured in Born to Dance totally own it”, writes Justin Lowe for The Hollywood Reporter.

Kiwi dance film Born to Dance, the directorial debut of actor Tammy Davis has premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The coming of age movie follows teenager Tu (Tia-Taharoa Maipi), whose father wants to enrol him into the army after graduating high school. But Tu just wants to dance.  Together with his dance crew he prepares for the upcoming national hip-hop competition, but ends up auditioning for their competitors K Crew.

“With an unusual setting, fresh faces and a global form of entertainment at its disposal, Born to Dance looks ready to resonate nearly anywhere hip-hop has taken root, which is pretty much everywhere.”

Even though the coming-of-age template is rather standard according to the reviewer, the screenwriters’ “task is readily bolstered by a talented, attractive, primarily Polynesian cast eager to pull out all the stops in an effort to reinvigorate a by-now familiar formula involving battling hip-hop crews.”

Choreographer Parris Goebel, who has an impressive resume collaborating with hip-hop divas Jennifer Lopez, Nicki Minaj and Janet Jackson “displays a distinctly dynamic style”. However, “the routines eventually grow repetitive” until “the final competition (…) elicits more stylistic variety.”

Article Source: The Hollywood Reporter, Justin Lowe, September 12, 2015.

Image Source: Youtube