Strictly Ballroom by Baz Luhrmann

Baz Luhrmann has used the ballroom dancing to express the three aspects in "Strictly Ballroom" movie, which are conformity, compliance and obedience. Conformity defines certain people change their behavior in order to follow the other group. In this movie, the dancers are required to dance in the traditional way like they used to, which is strictly ballroom, no other unique steps, and it has became a norm among them. I found the movie kind of interesting yet ironic because dancing supposed to be an expression of freedom and individual. However, Baz has applied the conformity aspect in this movie, which dancing is rigid and well-behaved. Therefore, everyone has to follow and unique dancing way is not allowed. Main character, Scott Hastings, was the special one, who insisted not to follow the same steps and believe his own steps, even though his family wanted him to follow the rule.

Compliance refers to a response to a request. Compliance is shown when everyone including Scott’s mom, Shirley and president of Australian Dancing Federation, Barry Fife asked Scott to dance the traditional way with the famous former champion of Pan-Pacific Grand Prix Championship. In the end, Scott danced with the beginner, Fran.

In the end of the movie, Scott’s dad, Doug has finally spoke out and asked his son to dance in his own way, he said “A life lived in fear is a life half-lived”. All these while, he was being obedient that he did not dare to speak out for his own, Shirley was being a controller toward his son and Doug did not express his feeling till the end of the movie. Obedience is shown, where an individual acts in response to a direct order from an authority.

Overall, the movie is inspiring that it taught me that, instead of following the rules, believe in ourselves and make changes for what we want.