Take the Lead...
—1. Overview
—2. Cast and Crew
—3. Photo Pages
—4. Trailers, Clips, DVDs, Books, Soundtrack
—5. Posters (Dance)
—6. Production Notes (pdf)
—7. Spiritual Connections
—8. Presentation Downloads
I was pleasantly surprised with Take the Lead, a movie that quite honestly, looked like a cheese-fest when I saw the previews. Dancing? Ballroom dancing? Antonio Banderas? I mean this is the guy who can box and shoot people up with a guitar case gun, but now he is teaching ball room dancing? Disappointing, right? Well if these thoughts have ran through your mind, then believe me, I thought the same things, but Take the Lead is a really good movie.
Take the Lead is the inspiring story of Pierre Dulane, a ballroom dance teacher who, after witnessing a crime committed by a high school student, wants to teach ballroom dance in an inner city high school that is pleased enough when students are not caught in drugs or dead. Ballroom dance seems to be the last thing on anyone's mind, yet in walks Dulane, stressing he really intends to teach the foxtrot, the waltz, (put whatever ballroom dance you know here), etc. The teachers laugh at him, but the principle decides to allow him to fill a teaching vacancy, detention.
This begins the story that is surprisingly funny, smart, and entertaining. I was truly shocked at how much I laughed and thought through a movie that was supposed to be about dancing (lame...). But this is movie is about one thing: Choices.
At one point in the film, the students had learned a few dances, were getting pretty good, but after watching the richer, white students of Dulane, they were convinced they could not ever be that good and that Dulane had misled them. Out of this comes the best line of the movie, when Dulane tells them, "When I look around the room I don't see a bunch of rejects, I see choices."
Choices. Lahrette (DaCosta) lives with her mother, a prostitute, and younger siblings. Rock (Brown) lives with his drunk parents, who he must support because they do not work. The list could go on, but Dulane offers them a choice; a choice to do something that matters. But Ballroom Dancing? Come on.
But this is where the power in this movie really shines. If something as seemingly pointless as Ballroom Dancing can become a passionate pursuit for people that lead them away from drugs, crime, and hopelessness, then only a lack of opportunity prevents people from such the pains of the streets.
Choices. We all have them. It is so much easier to blame our parents, our lack of intelligence, or whatever, but Take the Lead encourages to make a good choice. Serve, respect, and love others. That is the message of this movie, and it is one worth seeing.
People today have so many different types of gifts, and it is a shame that those gifts are often focused in the suburbs or to well-paying clients. I pray that there are more people like Dulane out there, with gifts, passions, and a heart to teach, that will consider moving to inner city to reach kids who are caught in families that are less than caring, neighborhoods that are less than safe, and schools that struggle to teach. Imagine if instead of expecting our government to fix the schools, people saw their gifts and used them for others, instead of themselves.
Take the Lead points us in that direction, and it begs the question: Are you willing to use your gifts for others, or for yourself? It is a tough question, but a question worth discussing. For that reason, Take the Lead should be commended.
— Overview
—2. Cast and Crew
—3. Photo Pages
—4. Trailers, Clips, DVDs, Books, Soundtrack
—5. Posters (Dance)
—6. Production Notes (pdf)
—7. Spiritual Connections
—8. Presentation Downloads
I was pleasantly surprised with Take the Lead, a movie that quite honestly, looked like a cheese-fest when I saw the previews. Dancing? Ballroom dancing? Antonio Banderas? I mean this is the guy who can box and shoot people up with a guitar case gun, but now he is teaching ball room dancing? Disappointing, right? Well if these thoughts have ran through your mind, then believe me, I thought the same things, but Take the Lead is a really good movie. Take the Lead is the inspiring story of Pierre Dulane, a ballroom dance teacher who, after witnessing a crime committed by a high school student, wants to teach ballroom dance in an inner city high school that is pleased enough when students are not caught in drugs or dead. Ballroom dance seems to be the last thing on anyone's mind, yet in walks Dulane, stressing he really intends to teach the foxtrot, the waltz, (put whatever ballroom dance you know here), etc. The teachers laugh at him, but the principle decides to allow him to fill a teaching vacancy, detention.
This begins the story that is surprisingly funny, smart, and entertaining. I was truly shocked at how much I laughed and thought through a movie that was supposed to be about dancing (lame...). But this is movie is about one thing: Choices.
At one point in the film, the students had learned a few dances, were getting pretty good, but after watching the richer, white students of Dulane, they were convinced they could not ever be that good and that Dulane had misled them. Out of this comes the best line of the movie, when Dulane tells them, "When I look around the room I don't see a bunch of rejects, I see choices."
Choices. Lahrette (DaCosta) lives with her mother, a prostitute, and younger siblings. Rock (Brown) lives with his drunk parents, who he must support because they do not work. The list could go on, but Dulane offers them a choice; a choice to do something that matters. But Ballroom Dancing? Come on.
But this is where the power in this movie really shines. If something as seemingly pointless as Ballroom Dancing can become a passionate pursuit for people that lead them away from drugs, crime, and hopelessness, then only a lack of opportunity prevents people from such the pains of the streets.
Choices. We all have them. It is so much easier to blame our parents, our lack of intelligence, or whatever, but Take the Lead encourages to make a good choice. Serve, respect, and love others. That is the message of this movie, and it is one worth seeing.
People today have so many different types of gifts, and it is a shame that those gifts are often focused in the suburbs or to well-paying clients. I pray that there are more people like Dulane out there, with gifts, passions, and a heart to teach, that will consider moving to inner city to reach kids who are caught in families that are less than caring, neighborhoods that are less than safe, and schools that struggle to teach. Imagine if instead of expecting our government to fix the schools, people saw their gifts and used them for others, instead of themselves.
Take the Lead points us in that direction, and it begs the question: Are you willing to use your gifts for others, or for yourself? It is a tough question, but a question worth discussing. For that reason, Take the Lead should be commended.
— Overview
2 Comments:
Consider:
The missing element in every human 'solution' is
an accurate definition of the creature.
The way we define 'human' determines our view
of self, others, relationships, institutions, life, and
future. Important? Only the Creator who made us
in His own image is qualified to define us accurately.
Choose wisely...there are results.
Many problems in human experience are the result of
false and inaccurate definitions of humankind premised
in man-made religions and humanistic philosophies.
Each individual human being possesses a unique, highly
developed, and sensitive perception of diversity. Thus
aware, man is endowed with a natural capability for enact-
ing internal mental and external physical selectivity.
Quantitative and qualitative choice-making thus lends
itself as the superior basis of an active intelligence.
Human is earth's Choicemaker. His title describes
his definitive and typifying characteristic. Recall
that his other features are but vehicles of experi-
ence intent on the development of perceptive
awareness and the following acts of decision and
choice. Note that the products of man cannot define
him for they are the fruit of the discerning choice-
making process and include the cognition of self,
the utility of experience, the development of value-
measuring systems and language, and the accultur-
ation of civilization.
The arts and the sciences of man, as with his habits,
customs, and traditions, are the creative harvest of
his perceptive and selective powers. Creativity, the
creative process, is a choice-making process. His
articles, constructs, and commodities, however
marvelous to behold, deserve neither awe nor idol-
atry, for man, not his contrivance, is earth's own
highest expression of the creative process.
Human is earth's Choicemaker. The sublime and
significant act of choosing is, itself, the Archimedean
fulcrum upon which man levers and redirects the
forces of cause and effect to an elected level of qual-
ity and diversity. Further, it orients him toward a
natural environmental opportunity, freedom, and
bestows earth's title, The Choicemaker, on his
singular and plural brow.
Human is earth's Choicemaker. Psalm 25:12 He is by
nature and nature's God a creature of Choice - and of
Criteria. Psalm 119:30,173 His unique and definitive
characteristic is, and of Right ought to be, the natural
foundation of his environments, institutions, and re-
spectful relations to his fellow-man. Thus, he is orien-
ted to a Freedom whose roots are in the Order of the
universe.
Let us proclaim it. Behold!
The Season of Generation-Choicemaker Joel 3:14 KJV
- from The HUMAN PARADIGM
hmm...Thanks. But I'll be honest, I have no clue what was just said...
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