Rhythm Is It! Movie Review:


You would expect a documentary about taking 240 kids and teaching them how to dance to be about learning them to dance? Well not if you are watching Rhythm Is It.

We follow 250 kids from Germany from various backgrounds, along with their dance teacher and composer as they prepare for a concert performing Stravinsky’s Rites of Spring. Instead of the usual self-confident assured kids they are real kids, some of them refugees, not interested in education and this is what is refreshing about the documentary.

The dance teachers are not so interested in the actual dancing, instead using the dancing as a way to examine themselves and find a sense of purpose. This approach even confuses the kid’s own teachers and provides one of the highlights.

We flit from the kids to the composer, to the dance teachers, finding out bits and pieces about all of them and their motivations. It was interesting that the adults involved viewed themselves as outsiders and the way that, although someone doesn’t fit the status quo, they can still be a success at whatever they do, as long as they take it seriously.

One thing that is disappointing is the lack of footage of the performance as we are only shown a paltry three minutes of it at the end, that was beautiful to watch and the documentary would really have benefited from letting us see more.

A good documentary, that although does make a lot of good points about society and how we all fit into it, is neither particularly moving or essential.

Gary Gray

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