Dance Baby Dance, 2018.
Written and Directed by Stephen Kogon.
Starring Stephen Kogon, Beverley Mitchell, Carlos Alazraqui, Hayley Shukiar, Lisa Brenner, Clare Grant, Isaiah Lucas, Paula Bellamy, Jim O’Heir, and Jim Nowakowski.
SYNOPSIS:
Jimmy has always dreamed of dancing professionally. A passionate tap dancer, life and other responsibilities have continually got in the way of him pursuing his dream over the years. With an open competition offering the chance to join a professional tour, however, Jimmy decides to commit to pursuing his lifelong goal.
Dance Baby Dance is the kind of film that you want to like, you want to enjoy. It promises a classic underdog story set in the world of dance, with a main focus on that perennial favourite tap (and some even in the rain, the poster seems to suggest). Although you can excuse a film treading a well-trodden path in its basic premise – what classic dance film doesn’t include an arc of struggle – it is fair to expect a couple of new elements, or, at the very least, some meaty dance numbers. Unfortunately, Dance Baby Dance fails on all these counts. It is an intrinsically bad film.
Jimmy (Stephen Kogon), a keen tapper, has gradually let the world of professional dancing slip away from him as he’s grown older, struggled with injury, settled down and fallen into a nondescript office job (absolutely zero effort is made to suggest he does anything other than wear a tie, sit in a swivel chair and chat with his super-supportive boss). However, for pure love of the dance form, he still enjoys practising at the temperamental Hector’s (Carlos Alazraqui) dance studios, where his wife Tess (Beverley Mitchell) also teaches classes. With a competition on the horizon that promises a spot to three individuals on a professional dance tour, Jimmy’s fires are re-stoked.
With shadows of The Room (and not in a good way), Dance Baby Dance’s dialogue is clunky and poorly-written, which an odd lack of underscoring soundtrack for a musically-minded movie makes all the more painfully obvious. The acting is, almost across the board, stilted and unnatural, like the actors want to act more to the camera than react to the co-stars. Even some of the basics of film-making seem to have fallen by the wayside, with inconsistent (and poor) lighting, sound and framing resulting in orange faces, echoing bathrooms and lopped off hairlines. There is even one instance where Jimmy is tapping in a studio with this surly niece (Hayley Shukiar), on the verge of a breakthrough with her challenging behaviour. It’s a pivotal moment in the film, with dance as the focal point… and you can barely see what his legs are doing as the floor is as dark as his trousers and shoes.
For a dance film it is also rather awkward that the dancing isn’t very impressive. Jimmy’s passion for tap is supposed to make up for any shortcomings he may have talent-wise. Kogon could maybe get away with this then… if Dance Baby Dance knew how to film and present his dancing in a more dynamic way – he is by no means a bad dancer, but neither his style nor presence pop on-screen. There are also numerous points in routines where his tapping seems rather at odds with the music playing – incongruous, not in the same rhythms – which is just plain odd in a dance film. It seems like what he is dancing to and what the audience are hearing are totally different tracks. He does manage to lift his performance (and musical cohesion) for the finale, but still not to the place where you would expect it to be.
There are a couple of brighter points in the film – ballet dancer Jim Nowakowski, who features as Dex, is clearly exceptionally gifted, and his performance on-screen creates the feelings of awe and enjoyment anticipated (and achieved) in most dance movies. Other dancers featured at the studios or in the competition don’t do too badly either, although Isaiah Lucas, portraying Ravon, seems stifled by limited choreography.
A few of the actors emerge relatively unscathed – Alazraqui as Hector is rather too cartoonish and over-the-top most of the time, but he has the most success in selling the script with his delivery. Clare Grant, as his sparky assistant Camille, attempts the same but with less success – she still, however, manages to retain the audience’s sympathy. Lisa Brenner, as sulky niece Kit’s depressed mother is probably the most naturally talented actor in the film, doing the best she can with a woefully underwritten and monstrously apathetic part.
In a weird way, despite his limitations as a performer, Stephen Kogon is unnervingly likeable as Jimmy. Dance Baby Dance is clearly his passion project (he also wrote, directed, produced, choreographed and supervised the music) and I can’t help but feel that same sunshine-y outlook and steely resolve in Jimmy will have Kogon bouncing back and moving onto his next project. A final word, however, on Dance Baby Dance: if the closing words on-screen have characters who’ve never interacted suddenly finding a happy ending with one another by pushing their photographs together… I wonder. I watched it through to the end to be fair – I’d suggest that you shouldn’t have to.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ / Movie: ★
Tori Brazier
