Streetdance review: street meets ballet – a lesson in compromise

This afternoon Belle and I went to see Streetdance, the British dance movie featuring Diversity, Flawless and George Sampson – basically it was a warm up for watching Britain’s Got Talent this evening…

One of the main attractions of course is all the flesh on display – taut, sweaty, topless young men, leaping and bounding, lifting the girls above their heads and making it look easy.

Then there is the opportunity to indulge my fantasy of being an equally taut, gorgeous young street dancer, spending my days passionately throwing myself around London and my nights holding dance offs in painfully trendy clubs.

As you may have suspected, my real life as a thirtysomething single mum in Somerset rather lacks the glamour and excitement of a streetdance final – my days of exposing my midriff ended around the same time as my compulsory education – but I could still empathise with the stress involved in balancing conflicting priorities and the importance of compromise.

In the film, the street dance crew are forced into an unlikely partnership with a group of ballet dancers, (ringing any political bells yet?). After a shaky start, compromise becomes the name of the game – can the two groups, so different in outlook and background, come together under pressure to combine their strengths and win over the crowds?

Well of course they do, no surprises there. But it was, nonetheless, AWESOME. (I did try a little ‘street’ pose as I emerged from the cinema and said the word ‘awesome’, but I’m pretty sure I didn’t pull it off).

I’m a massive fan of all things upbeat and dancey – I’ll admit I saw HSM3 several time in the cinema – and I absolutely loved Streetdance. The music was fab, the story predictable yet inspiring, and the choreography blew me away. I could feel myself smiling and my eyes sparkling with every dance routine.

I also loved the fact that it was an accurate but accidental dramatisation of the ‘if you can’t beat ’em join ’em’ style of politics that we’ve seen emerge over the last few weeks. I can picture it now – Dave in tights, Nick spinning on his head – fingers crossed that the Con-Dem coalition can be choreographed with as much flair as the Streetdance crew.