Fame: not your typical dance flick

For those of you who know me this may come as a shock, but I have a dancing background. I know I know, I never said I was any good, but I sure gave it a good whirl for about 10 or so years. Also, my sister is an extremely gifted dancer and even thought of going professional some day, that meant that I had to sit in on a lot of dance rehearsals and competitions even beyond my time at the dance studio. With this exposure to the dance world, great passion has been built inside me for the dancing industry.

I figured I should give justification for what I am about to say. I really loved the movie Fame. I knew that I would probably love it going into it, considering I loved movies such as Center Stage, Step Up and Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. Yet, Fame wasn't like the rest of these movies. The screen wasn't filled with cheesy one liners and stories that would just never happen in real life. (With that said, this was a 'teen' movie and a dance movie so I'm not comparing this to a Mystic River if you will). It really portrayed the stories of struggling youngsters with a passion for the stage.

For those of you who don't know Fame is a remake of the 1980 musical set in New York City at the High School for the Performing Arts (known as P.A.). It tells the story of the real life Fiorello H. Laguardia High School, where students are trained in such arts that lead to professional acting, singing and dancing.

There were two great finds that I took from this movie. First was the dancer Kherington Payne. Payne was a contestant on season four of So You Think You Can Dance. I feel in love with her and her partner Twitch while watching the season a few summers ago. It was so fun to see her blossom as a dancer and actress on the screen. After doing some research, I read that she is going to start stretching her career into dancing on screen in the future. My second find was the singer Asher Book. His adorable smile and sweet character brightened up the silver screen and my heart. For his audition he sang Ordinary People originally done by John Legend. Needless to say I've listened to it on iTunes about 50 times. (you can listen to it on imeem here: http://www.imeem.com/people/Mysgbej/music/mTg_DLrx/asher-book-ordinary-people/)