Strictly Ballroom is the name of a 1986 play and its 1992 film adaptation. The play was written by Baz Luhrmann and Andrew Bovell, and film by Baz Luhrmann and Craig Pearce. The film was directed by Luhrmann. The film’s tagline is: “A life lived in fear… is a life half lived.”
Strictly Ballroom is a romantic comedy telling the story of an Australian ballroom dancer, Scott Hastings. Scott comes from a family with a history of ballroom dancing and has been training since childhood. He has become very proficient but he encounters considerable resistance when he tries to dance his own steps in preference to the more traditional ballroom moves. Scott’s steps are not strictly ballroom. His dancing partner Liz leaves him, and he eventually finds a new dancing partner, and love, with the plain and ordinary dancing student Fran.
At the Pan-Pacific Grand Prix, it is discovered that the competition has been fixed by Barry Fife, chairman of the Australian Dancing Federation. Fife disqualifies Hastings and Fran, but they dance anyway and practically bring down the house dancing the Paso Doble, which they have learned from Fran’s father and grandmother. In the end, it is not revealed whether Scott and Fran win or lose, as in the story, that is not an important factor.
A sub-plot involves Scott’s discovery of his parents’ hidden past – they too had been ballroom dancing champions until Scott’s father (now a quiet and retiring type) had attempted to flout convention with novel dance steps.
Luhrmann sends up the peculiar rituals of ballroom dancing without making them look ridiculous. And the transformation of Fran’s ugly duckling into the beautiful swan is convincing.
Luhrmann’s inventiveness brought him prizes galore. With eight Australian Film Institute Awards, three BAFTAs and the Cannes Film Festival’s Prix de Jeunesse, he’s shown that although a story may be formulaic, it’s the way you tell it that determines success.
