Upon first learning about We Will Dance Again, the boy thought it was going to be a happy story with some motivation to it, maybe a story of struggle in dance. He was in for a surprise; emotional content rose within the film than he expected. At 18 years of age, he was beginning to understand loss, hope, and endurance rather well and this movie had all those themes in a manner that did not fade from his memory even after the final credits. We Will Dance Again. This was not just about dance; it was about life, love, and hope in the most oppressive of circumstances.
In the movie, a group that used to be ballet dancers is depicted, but they are forced to quit doing so because of something unfortunate that happened to them. For some, such was a death of a close friend, for others personal or emotional trauma of a different kind, but all had abandoned the infringement that defined them once. The boy instantly related to the characters’ problems not for the reason that they all loved to dance, but they had experienced loss. The boy knew that We Will Dance Again was not about only dancing, something that was the867-7111280alma82136activity, but what happens when an integral part of who you are is gone and the struggle of having to build yourself from scratch.
At the film’s center is Mia, a former ballerina who lost her husband in a terrible car crash that happened a day before their planned joint inauguration of a dance studio. Right from the very first sequence of the movie, there was a sense of loss which could be identified with Mia and the boy was drawn to that. It wasn’t just the death of a mate she was grief-stricken over, it was the loss of the relationship as well as all the hopes that they had together. A boy perceived that grieving also means more, not only the agony of losing a dear person, but also the emptiness that comes from having to begin all over again without the mainstay of your life.
What surprised the boy the most about Mia’s journey was the fact that she did not leap into the world of dance for healing the way most people would. In fact, she shied away from it as though returning there would only aggravate her suffering. Only after she was persuaded by a few former dancers each fighting an internal battle of their own to help them out with a final show Mia’s rushed passion began to reemerge. The boy could relate to that—how sometimes, when you’re hurt, you stop loving or stop doing the things you love because they become a reminder for everything you’ve lost. Only to find out sooner or later those very things will be what helps you most.
The group of dancers Mia joined was very interesting in terms of their personal history, and everyone contributed to adding something special to the overall emotional scheme of the film. There was Ben, a former professional ballroom dancer who suffered an injury and was haunted by the question of whether he would be able to dance again. Then there was Lena, a contemporary dancer with a deep depression after her mother’s sudden death. And Javier, a street dancer who did drugs after the violent death of his brother and is trying to get normal these days. The boy found in these characters different approaches to the same concept of loss and noticed that despite these differences, all of them are united by the enthusiasm of dancing.
Interestingly, one of the most influential scenes in the movie took place being a practice where Mia, allowed herself to dance for the first time since the death of her fiance. For a while, the boy kept quiet and watched shuffling between two criticisms head on between the two extremes: First, Mia was too stiff, and then, the music started affecting her without her trying to. The display was neither refined nor elegant – the moves were unrefined and emotional and uncertain but that was the beauty of it all. The boy sensed that bit by bit she was releasing her feeling of sorrow every time Mia tried to reach to the part in her that she buried deep inside herself. It did not mean that there was a necessity to forget this pain for there was nothing great about bandaging it, there was a need to accept it, to learn to live with it amongst the happiness of dancing that she had once cherished.
But, Mia wasn’t the only protagonist of the movie. Every character had his own arc and the boy was amazed at how this film interwove all their arcs into one that was about resilience and overcoming trauma. Take example Ben, he had to accept the fact that he may never dance like he used to, which was not the point but it did not mean that he could never get the joy of expressing himself through movement. Lena’s grief was turned into her art, through dance, as a way to deal with the feelings she had buried. And Javier who despite of the group was once again afflicted by a will to live and dance, came to understand that dancing could be construed as an act of redemption, as an activity directed at the restoration of one’s life which he had nearly sabotaged.
What the boy found most perplexing about We Will Dance Again was depicting restoration in a different light that it is not an isolated approach. Rather, it is achieved through interaction and relationships with other people. The characters were also not simply going back to the dance; they were going back to each other, to the center of the world, to the feeling of acceptance that they had lost The boy thought this was the message of the film, that there is no motion without the community healing process. Community healing happens when you let others into your world, when you allow yourself to be weak and pour out your pain in front of those who get it.
Through the course of the film progression to the last act the boy was building up an expectation towards the end. It was not just the question of whether the troupe would manage to stage an exquisite performance it was about what that performance was. It was not only an act of bravery, striking the first blow and boldly stepping into the action. Each performer was aiming to show that although there were and there will be many hurdles in their lives, they are standing strong, battling and finding reasons to continue dancing in spite of the pain. The boy appreciated the thought that dance, like everything else in life, is not about striving for flawless results, but rather about participation, about being there, about doing something and moving ahead, however painful it may be.
The concluding act exemplified variety at its best: it featured ballroom, contemporary and street dance with each of the performers contributing their own experiences towards the performance. The boy stood still while watching Mia, Ben, Lena, Javier and the rest of the women inside the studio, move with their whole heart into the choreography, and every part of their body told the boy everything they have lived. This was more than simply dance; it was a statement that they were ready to face any challenge and fight all odds in order to regain happiness that once seemed lost in the sorrowful darkness.
When the credits ran out, the boy immovably occupied space as his thoughts were reviewing a picture depicted in front of him. We Will Dance Again was more than a film about dancing, it was a film about the fight, about will to search for the slightest glimmer of hope in the deepest darkness, about healing by means of art, about which there are no enough words to explain to anyone. The boy understood that the message of the film was not only that it is needed to return to dancing, but rather how one is supposed to live: moving through life with poise and power, when the person’s world is thoroughly shattered.
Ultimately, the film made the boy feel hopeful and echoed that no matter how rough the knock down is in life there is always a way to get back. We Will Dance Again hammered home the understanding of him that recovery is not a one stop effort; it is a journey, entailing time, relationships, and tenacity to continue one’s journey no matter how unbearable the history is. And in such a message, the boy found solace, reassuring himself that there would always be a way to dance again regardless of the challenges that lay in wait for him.
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