Sydney’s Brent Street School dance academy has been made famous thanks to the Prime TV series, Dance Life. This followed the class of 2022 in their quest to become professional dancers.
Now the series has spawned a feature documentary, as a large group of current students and alumni vie for one of ten places on a week-long intensive in London with Shapehaus studio. From there, one performer will be offered a contract with the studio.
Many of the familiar faces from the series are here again, including Emily Smith, Conor Bann-Murray, and Max Ostler. Luke Cornish, who was a director on the series, takes the helm with the feature. As a consequence, this feels very much like a couple of episodes of the series. There is nothing about it that makes it stand out as a feature documentary per se. There has recently been an explosion of these you’re-all-talented-but-only-one-can-win types of productions. As with all of them we see the blood, sweat, and tears that go into becoming outstanding in an artistic field. We hear about the insecurities, the traumas in the background, and the reasons for wanting to dance. And we meet carefully curated real people: the body conscious girl; the refugee; the bullied small-town boy, and so forth. Of course we end up caring about them, and rooting for them, and getting emotional when the winner is finally announced. It’s almost impossible not to become emotionally invested in these tropes.
For those who love dance, this is clearly a winner. In fact the film really starts to become interesting once the troupe travels to London and starts working with choreographer Dean Lee at Shapehaus. Watching him put together a showcase in one week is worth the price of admission. At an hour and forty minutes this film is far too long: the early scenes could have happily been cut and the action started with the troupe on their way to London.
Dance for Your Life is certainly one for the dance fans, and for anyone who loves Drag Race, X Factor, or similar shows. It doesn’t really add anything new to the conversation, and certainly doesn’t dig deep. But for all that it is nicely put together, and has just enough emotional depth to earn the moniker “documentary”.
Reviewed by Tracey Korsten
Rating 4 out of 5
YouTube trailer: Dance for Your Life | Official Trailer
Dance for Your Life opens in cinemas on 2 April
Distributor: Mushrooms Studios
If you loved Dance Life, this one is for you.
