Dance Academy: The Movie – Dance Academy: The Movie (2017)

Directed by: Jeffrey Walker | 101 minutes | drama | Actors: Xenia Goodwin, Thomas Lacey, Alicia Banit, Dena Kaplan, Miranda Otto, Jordan Rodriguez, David E. Woodley, Nic Westaway, Keiynan Lonsdale

“Dance Academy” is an Australian TV series about a group of talented young dancers who meet at Sydney’s National Dance Academy. Despite their different backgrounds and characters, they share a great passion, dance. After three seasons, the fun was over, but the fans and the makers could not let go of the characters and storylines. ‘Dance Academy: De film’ (2017), released in Dutch cinemas in the dubbed version, follows the main characters about a year and a half after the last episode.

Like the series, ‘Dance Academy: The Movie’ revolves primarily around Tara Webster. After her terrible fall on stage, where she broke her back, she is now fully rehabilitated, but she no longer wears her pointe shoes. However, she is still close to the fire, thanks to her job as a waitress at the Sydney Opera House. At one of the performances there she meets Madeline Moncur (Miranda Otto), who tells her in unmistakable terms that she would love to see her dance again and that she needs a soloist. Tara has doubts: she’s just starting a lawsuit that could bring her a lot of money, provided she can prove that she can never dance again. Tara decides to audition anyway and works hard to get back in shape. With the help of her friends it seems to work. But the ballet world is tough, had Tara forgotten that?

‘Dance Academy: The film’ definitely offers fans of the series what they were hoping for: a nice reunion with all the characters, enough drama and tension to be glued to the screen for more than an hour and a half and many ballet scenes. The film is beautifully shot, compliments to the cinematographer who manages to take the film to a higher level. Everything is beautifully portrayed, from the Australian capital to New York and the sometimes breathtaking performances.

Fortunately, for the film fan who is not familiar with the series, ‘Dance Academy: The film’ is also fine to follow, although it will seem a bit more episodic for the layman, because the storyline keeps Tara going to the next character. First, her relationship with Christian is discussed, then she goes to New York where she meets best friend Kat, and finally she meets Ben again. The story doesn’t really go into depth, but the emotions feel real enough and that’s what matters. Well done.