StreetDance (2010)

basics...
A couple of hours before I left the house to go and see Northern Ballet's Hamlet I watched a film involving ballet... well, it was StreetDance, the British dance film about a group of street dancers who are co-opted by a groovy ballet teacher to help her students learn how to let loose and stop being so stiff and formal. 

brilliant...
This film is in no way 'brilliant' but it is also no where near as cringey or terrible as I thought it might be, especially since it stars a lot of 'youth' with all the bad fashion and mangled English language that that implies, and follows the standard little-group-who-could format as seen in Coyote Ugly, Step Up and all those other recent dance movies (none of which I've seen). I felt quite old watching the film, yet I enjoyed it as there was a real sense of fun and a lot of skill on display. Britain's Got Talent alumni Diversity and cute George Samson featured, the latter pulling off some incredible moves, but the star for me wasn't northern street dancer Carly (Nichola Burley), it was the hot ballet dancer love interest Tomas (Richard Winsor). Now I've seen Winsor live in Matthew Bourne's modern dance version of The Picture of Dorian Grey in Edinburgh on 29/08/08, and he was hot there. He's even better close up wearing tight ballet outfits and often topless. Nom nom nom indeed. I'm so shallow. 

but...
To criticise StreetDance for a lack of originality would be missing the point, as it exists to provide an audience with exactly what they want. There could have been a bit more in the way of humour or maybe a few bits of stunt casting with the adult characters. 

briefly...
A film that does what it sets out to do: features a lot of dancing; and one that does it very well with a likable bunch of characters and a pretty lead who can act as well as dance.