We're in a busy season for dance documentaries; this week it's the slums of Rio de Janiero for "Only When I Dance," part of the Webster (University) Film Series; last week we looked at China in "Mao's Last Dancer." The dancing sequences are charming, often exciting; the stories aren't much, and the fact that my review copy lacked subtitles didn't help.
Writer-director Beadie Finzi's film brings us two young people, Irlan Santos da Silva and Isabela Coracy, trying to get away from poverty in Brazil and seeking scholarship help by winning dance competitions. If it reminds one of basketball, so be it. And subtitles might have been extraneous. After all, poverty is poverty, airports are airports, dance floors are dance floors and competition is competition.
But the dancers are lovely and talented, school director Marisa Estrella shows the same passion and competitive fervor as football and basketball coaches, and "Only When I Dance" offers the opportunity to watch some superior dancing and to learn that some aspects of life are universal.
Only When I Dance opens today and runs through Sunday at the Winifred Moore Auditorium.
—Joe