HIGH STRUNG: More Dance, Less Romance

In classical art forms each specific field has one or two areas that have a more prestigious status. In dance it is ballet, and in the orchestra it is the violin. These two have a reputation of being highly difficult to master, being rigid in both technique and discipline. When these two classical arts step outside their rigid structure they can create something new and inspiring. High Strung takes this idea and runs with it, focusing on combinations of classical and contemporary styles in music and dance. But together with a story about young romance and achieving your dreams, does it cheapen this core concept?

Dance, Music and Deportation

A fresh faced and bright-eyed ballerina named Ruby Adams (Keenan Kampa) has earned a scholarship at Manhattan Conservatory of the Arts, a prestigious dance school in New York. Although she is the best classical ballet dancer, the contemporary classes are causing her problems putting her scholarship in jeopardy. In the same city a brooding but talented violinist, Johnnie Blackwell (Nicholas Galitzine), plays in the subway for money. Living in the USA illegally, Johnnie is relying on his dodgy lawyer to get him the green card he needs to stay in New York, always aware he could get deported if found out.

The couple meet when two dance crews engage in a daring dance-off in the subway. Although Ruby’s discipline and structured dance style clashes completely with Johnnie’s open and free music style, the two strike a chord and become friends. With the help of a dance crew called The Switch Steps is there a way to save Ruby’s scholarship and stop Johnnie being deported?

A Concoction of Styles

It sounds like quite the classic dance film, but where other films like Step Up have a serious undertones, High Strung is pretty much a sugar-coated fantasy. The whole film plays out like a hyper exaggerated romance film; the mid-western girl with bright blue eyes and blonde curls meets the dark and pouty mysterious boy, the slow-motion as our two protagonists make eye contact and  ‘the power of music and dance saves the day’ narrative is sickly sweet.

However, even with the overly syrupy narrative, High Strung has some major moves and music to flaunt. Director Michael Damian wanted Ruby to be played by a real ballet dancer and found Keenan Kampa. Kampa was the only American who had received a contract to the Mariinsky Theater, a worldly prestigious Russian theater and ballet academy. Kampa had never held a film role, and it shows, but her dancing skills are stunning.

The talent continues into contemporary and hip hop dance, specialist choreographer Dave Scott (Step Up 2, Step Up 3D) helped blend the vast mix of dance styles from hip hop, ballet, contemporary, tango and Irish step dance. Scott also helped with the formation of the dance group Switch Step, featuring some young talent and YouTube superstar Ian Eastwood.

The mix of dancing styles is complemented with the creative c*cktail of music composed by Nathan Lanier. His blends of classical orchestration with hip hop sound awesome, plus, with his violinist history, some of the violin solos are quite remarkable. The performances in High Strung all feature a mix of dance and music styles, the best one being saved for the end in the final electrifying performance.

A Fantastical Cliche

Other cast members are Paul Freeman (Raiders of the Lost Ark) as a Russian ballet teacher, Maia Morgenstern (The Passion of the Christ) as the executive director of the ballet school and Jane Seymour (Live and Let Die) as the contemporary dance teacher. Unfortunately, they all get assigned the same type of role: bossy tough-love dance faculty, their sense and dialogue all fading into the background. The script in general doesn’t stand out and falls into cliché, in particular the dialogue between Ruby and her BFF roommate Jazzy (Sonoya Mizuno) is cringey.

What’s interesting about High Strung was that its story is loosely based on the real life experiences of its writers, Michael Damian and Janeen Damian. Janeen’s history of ballet and Michael’s skills as a musician were the inspiration for High Strung and the film is a coming together of their respective arts. It is a personal re-telling of their talents and experiences but the way the film is made makes it seem like a fairy tale.

In this fantasy version of New York, everyone’s problems get solved and dreams really do come true. As we are all aware, in the real world, artists, dancers and musicians have to work for their talent, overcoming an overwhelming amount of pressures and stresses. It easy to say that High Strung completely overlooks this struggle. But honestly, taking the film criticism hat off, maybe it’s a film that just wants to have a bit of fun, without statements or commentary, just a celebration of joining dance and music.

Conclusion

With the dull dialogue and cliché romance narrative, High Strung is on the brink of being a deadbeat dance film. But its choreography and original score have saved it… only just. Its mix and variety of styles make it unique and interesting. Maybe take some of the dialogue choices and romantic aspects as a bit of fun and focus on its celebration of some amazing artists and their talents, instead.

[highlighted_p boxed=”false” center=”false”]What is your favorite mix of styles? Are you a fan of dance films, music films or both? Let us know in the comments.

High Strung opens in U.S. theathers on April 8. Find international release dates here.