Scott Hastings Ballroom Dance Analysis

Scott Hastings is an Australian Ballroom dancer who has dreams of winning the Pan Pacific Grand Prix 5 dance Latin American championship. While he is a great dancer, he has become frustrated with the restrictions placed on the dance steps, which are far removed from The Passionate American dance styles that originally inspired the ballroom steps. The film opens with a dance competition, a montage of shots showing beautiful dance couples taking the floor, this is cut with close up shots of Miss Hastings who expresses her disappointment with Scott's behaviour during the competition. She states “ did I do something wrong? did I fail him as a mother?” The audience learns that Scott has broken the rules of ballroom dancing by introducing his own dance steps and this has made his family and friends very unhappy. Scott Hastings wants to bring it the passion and excitement back to the multicopter dance style, however, the ballroom Association will only allow “ Strictly Ballroom” steps.

Scott meets Fran, a Spanish immigrant who …show more content…
Kwaku travels to Ghana to learn more about his culture, he attends a drumming lesson to learn how to play traditional Ashanti music. A mid shot is shown of Kwaku confused face, the narrator states “kwaku struggles to find his rhythm”, this metaphor for kwaku struggle to learn about his heritage. As he leaves the lesson a long shot of kwaku, and his Ghanaian friend Thomas, walking along the road, the narration states ‘Kwaku journey to discover his heritage will be a long one’. This visual metaphor demonstrate to the audience that kwaku is on a long path to discover his identity and he must walk in a Ghanaian shoes to truly understand his family heritage. It is important for kwaku to learn about his Ashanti heritage so he can develop a strong personal identity and a respect for his family